Growing up AlleyBot
by TriplechangerSpeedster1
Summary: OC-AU. Who will care for those left abandoned? Who will fight for those who truly need it? In the coming storm can one misfit Cybertronian and his family survive against the odds? Only time will tell... Transformers is owned by Hasbro; I only own Nightfire and the AlleyBots. Rated T for fights, some death and some swearing
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer in summary**

**Timeframes, speech and AlleyBot info**

"-" = speech

:_italics_: = telepathy

_Italics_ = singing/humming

{speech} = com's

[speech] = bond

Orn= 1 Cybertronian month

12 orns=1 vorn

Vorn=1 Cybertronian year

1 vorn = 100 Earth years

* * *

Bay verse with some G1 elements (like Ratchet is going to have his G1 colours and no Sam. **BUT**! Lennox, Epps and Graham are gonna have major roles because they're just that awesome!)

**AlleyBot races: they don't look like regular Cybertronians because I wanted them to be unique, like the different frame types already present on Cybertron (Praxians, Seekers etc.) . I can't draw Transformers worth a damn though so images on my DeviantArt profile are a bit thin on the ground, I have done a few humanformer versions though. What AlleyBot's call legacies are additional mod's they're sparked with like warp drives, shield generators and the like. A Prime legacy is exactly that, but it is a modification made by the Matrix when it chooses it's bearer. Hope this clears things up for later in the story. Any questions, just ask.**

Kaonite AlleyBot's: anthro dragons (blue or blue-violet optics)

Simfurian AlleyBot's: anthro gryffins (grey optics)

Iaconian AlleyBot's: centaurs (red optics)

Polyhexian AlleyBot's: anthro cheetahs (yellow optics)

Praxian AlleyBot's: anthro wolves (purple optics)

Vosian AlleyBot's: anthro Pegasus (orange optics)

Protihexian AlleyBot's: anthro eagles(white optics)

Tarnite AlleyBot's: anthro lions (green optics) 

* * *

Prologue 

_Now_

"Grandpa! Grandpa! They're here!"

The old, grey haired man looked up from his book and smiled as his gaggle of grandchildren came charging over. They all pointed at three vehicles just pulling into the dusty yard in front of the ranch house. Two sleek, almost identical Corvettes parked alongside an enormous Mack semi. On an unspoken signal the trio of vehicles transformed, the Mack-former grinning down at the old human.

"Yew doin' alright Will?"

Will gave a tired smile as his grandchildren swarmed around the three bot's feet.

"Nightfire! Sunny! Sides! You promised a story next time you came!"

The red Corvette laughed as he carefully sat down, his golden twin following. Almost immediately they had children climbing up onto their knees to listen.

"That we did sparklets. What do you wanna hear?"

"Story about Nightfire!"

All three bot's laughed at the children's determination, they had been wanting a story about Nightfire for ages.

Nightfire smiled gently at the kids.

"How 'bout we tell yew lot 'bout where we come from, an' how we met yer gramps?"

The children all cheered and settled down, eagerly waiting for the story. Even Will had come off the porch and had found a chair to sit on so he could listen.

"This story begins several vorns ago …"

_Then_

"PRIMUS FRAGGIT! Ah'm gonna kill ya fer doin' dis ta meh!"

She glared at her wide -opticed mate with burning blue optics as she crushed his hand, another contraction racking her malnourished frame. The medic scanned the snarling Kaonite femme in front of him. He cursed quietly as he dodged an outstretched wing that whistled past his face plates.

"OK, I think we're nearly there now, he's almost ready."

All this got the poor Iaconian was a growl; so bopping the in-labour femme on the nose with a spanner seemed the less suicidal idea than opening his mouth and furthering the femmes rage. She continued to scream creative threats as to what was going to happen to her mate's interface equipment if he ever came near her again while desperately pushing to give birth to her child. Both he and the medic shuddered at the creativity of her threats. With a final push and a roar, everyone present was greeted by the soft cries of the new-born. The new father directed his violet optics towards his new-born as he sought to extract his mangled hand from his mate's grip. He winced as he attempted to flex the crushed digits.

"Only da one?"

She rolled her optics at him in amusement and nodded towards the new-born in her arms.

"Yeh, now shut da slag up an' come meet ya son ya lug'ead."

The new sire laughed slightly, rubbing the back of his head with his less damaged hand.

"We was thinkin' triplets...'specially wit' 'ow big ya was gettin'"

The AlleyBot had to quickly lean back to dodge the angry punch aimed at his midsection. His mate threw him an evil look that made him shiver. Note to self: never irritate his mate when she's in this state.

"SHADDUP an' come say hi!"

As the new parents looked over their new-born son, he blinked enormous electric blue-violet optics at them. The femme snuggled the large drakelet into her chest plates and smiled, humming a soothing lullaby.

"Nightfire … mah little Nightfire."


	2. Chapter 1

**"-" = speech**

**:_italics_: = telepathy**

**{speech} = com's**

**[speech] = bond**

Ch. 1

"Not too far Nightfire! Ya don't want Omega 17's bots seein' ya now."

Nightpyra Prime watched her son with worried optics. The young mech wasn't even a vorn old yet, if he was caught by Omega 17's cronies, he'd be dead before she or Firebite could get to him, speedster legacy or not. The blue, black and silver drakelet turned to look at his carrier, electric blue-violet optics glinting mischievously.

"Don't 'chu worry none carrier, ah'm way too fast for 'em."

Nightfire smirked when his blue visor slid down in front of his optics as he bolted, soon becoming nothing but a blur of colour. Nightpyra watched her son with proud optics; he was very mature for such a young mech, yet like all drakelet's, he loved letting off steam. He mainly took after his sire, with his black and silver colouration definitely coming from Firebite's side of the family. The blue and the single black stripe that ran over the little mechs face, starting under one optic, crossing over his nose and finishing under the other; that was all her. His optics were a mix of both parents though, all in all he seemed to have got the best from both parents. Her musings were interrupted by a tightly encrypted com. Frowning, she activated her comlink, confused as to who would be contacting her.

{**Nightpyra**! Dis is CodeRed; get yer mate an' little'un an' get da slag outta dere femme! Omega's sendin' a full squad…orders are ta take all three of you's out; I'll try an' delay deploymen' bu' ya need ta skedaddle Prime; **NOW**!}

In her chest the Matrix of Balance pulsed, both a warning and a reminder of what the Ancient Primes had told her. She still remembered the shock of being chosen by a Matrix that everyone had believed to have disappeared with the last Prime vorns ago. Even then she had tried to tell the ancient artifact to choose another AlleyBot but the decision had already been made. Nightpyra thought about the warning: that she must keep the balance at all costs and if she was to bring a sparkling into the world while she was still Prime … there would be a hefty price to pay, such was the cost of becoming the Prime of Balance. Still she had done it, even if it was going to come at the cost of her life she would never regret bringing Nightfire into the world, he truly was the light in her darkness. Nightpyra's spark clenched in fear and rage; they were coming to kill her child! She would sooner die herself.

The young speedster slid back onto his haunches as he skidded to a stop in front of his carrier when she looked up abruptly, her headspikes flushing a deeper, angrier blue from their usual sky blue. She quickly scruffed him in her teeth, standing up as she did so.

:_ Wat's de problem carrier?_:

Nightfire looked up to his carrier's powerful jaws, worry creasing his young face plates.

: _Keep quiet, we've gotta get back ta de lean-to, Omega's bots 'ave been sent afta meh an' yer sire an' we can't let 'em see you_:

Nightpyra soon became a blue blur as she bolted for the alleyway lean-to she was currently staying in with her mate and child. The streets of Kaon were not always safe territory at the best of times, but ever since Omega 17 took command of the AlleyBot's, there had been regular patrols ensuring none of the Kaonite AlleyBot's started families, the paranoid Simfurian AlleyBot fearing the more powerful, draconian Kaonite AlleyBot's; after all, they were the biggest and most unpredictable of the AlleyBot races. It didn't help that the last four AlleyBot Primes had been Kaonite's, as was the current one. Nightpyra hissed in pain as a blaster bolt clipped her side when she skidded towards the lean-to. She quickly set Nightfire down and urged him inside, quickly following.

: _Hide now_:

Firebite looked at his panting mate.

"Dey've found us, ain't dey"

It wasn't a question, but Nightpyra still nodded. Both parents' optics flared aggressively; their anger causing the paint nanites in their helm spikes to flush brightly, as they heard the footprints outside the lean-to. Firebite spared a glace to his still exhausted mate.

: _Can ya use yer Prime legacy_? :

: _Don't be stupid, ah'm runnin' low, an' ya know it takes a lot outta meh; CodeRed's tried ta warn us, 'ee mus' 'ave bin overrule'_:

The two adults looked at each other in panic. They turned to the entrance of their home as the sound of footsteps halted outside. Firebite bared his impressive canines in a silent snarl.

"Nightpyra Prime, Tactical Officer Firebite; surrender the drakelet for processing and prepare to be submitted for questioning by order of Commander Omega 17."

Both Kaonites snarled at the thought of handing their child over to be murdered. Nightpyra nodded to Firebite, before drawing herself up to her full impressive height.

"He ain' no Commander of ours or any Kaonite! We don' answer ta da one who took control wi'out provin' 'imself!"

Both adults took up fighting positions as the lean-to was destroyed, leaving them surrounded by the much healthier looking Simfurian's.

All Nightfire could do was watch in panic as his parents were attacked. The telepathic orders from his parents to run were still not registering when the young Kaonite received a vicious kick to his back leg, the claws on the foot of the adult AlleyBot tearing through important lines and gears. Finally spurred into movement, Nightfire painfully limped his way to the end of the alley where he had been born and had spent the first 6 orns of his life. The last thing he saw before he fled was the light leaving his mother's optics as a cannon blast tore through her chest plating.

As the young AlleyBot fled, he was watched by a single Simfurian. The mech shuttered his optics and shook his head, this was not what he had signed up for; and even worse, he had failed his Prime, he didn't get the warning out in time. He wondered how he would be able to look at his little brother, who he practically raised, when he had just participated in this slaughter. Some Security Officer he was, couldn't even keep the one he was supposed to protect alive. CodeRed looked back over to where the rest of the squadron were counting their losses and ensuring the two adults were dead. His commanding officer stormed over, wings quivering in ill-concealed anger. His high pitched, grating voice caused CodeRed to give an involuntary shudder.

"Three dead and another two injured, all to deal with two upstart Kaonites and their brat. CodeRed, did you see the drakelet, we cannot find its body. Not only that … the Prime's Matrix is gone! Commander Omega 17 will not be pleased that he cannot have the Matrix."

CodeRed glowered down at his commander and spat off to one side. Wiping his mouth, he shook his head in the negative, not trusting himself to speak or even use telepathy. The other AlleyBot shrugged before turning away to gather up the remainder of the squad. CodeRed grinned darkly at his commanders back, his crest and wings flaring with anticipation. One day, they would all pay for their crimes here, he just hoped he would be there to see it.

**A/N: Please review; I'd like to see what everyone thinks**

**A/N 2: Edit 5/4/15: Just altered the format to clean things up a bit and make the dialogue easier to read.**


	3. Chapter 2

Ch.2

Nightfire limped north, away from Kaon. He thought about the red and white Simfurian who had let him escape. He had almost looked sorry, but why, if he was helping those other mechs surely he would have stopped him, or worse. The orphan shook his head and kept moving, he needed to get as far away as possible. As he travelled, the injury to his leg refused to heal properly and became infected, rust eating at the exposed lines and torn protoform. In his semi-delirious state, he didn't really know where he was heading, save that he was further and further moving away from Kaon and the horrific memories of the city and the alleyway he had been born in. Deep in his spark, he had felt something snap when he watched his parents be murdered; he wouldn't know until he was much older but that snap was the loss of the youthful innocence that all youngsters had until they had seen the horrors of the real world.

As the injured young mech continued, dazedly passing through the various cities of Cybertron, he received further injuries from the wilder, more territorial AlleyBot's and the other residents of Cybertron. Some Cybertronians enjoyed using AlleyBots for target practise, as Nightfire found out when he had to dodge a bullet for the first time. Weak from energon loss and his injuries, he eventually collapsed, the last thought on his processor before he went into stasis was on the revenge he would seemingly never get and how life was just not fair.

He woke to a pair of concerned light-blue optics staring down at him. Reacting just on instinct, he slammed his head forward, catching the surprised mech in the faceplates before attempting to scramble away.

"Sweet carrier of Primus! What was that for youngling?"

The white and red medic's voice was muffled as he put his hand to his bloodied nose. The medic glared at the panicking AlleyBot from under his grey chevron. His glare softened though as he took in the emaciated protoform and wild, fear-filled optics.

"Who da frag are ya an' why did ya 'elp meh, ah don't 'ave any credits or anytin' like dat."

Nightfire regarded the medic warily, knowing full well that the bots that liked to call themselves 'normal' Cybertronians didn't have much time for his kind, many shooting at them on site, as he had already learned. For this one to have helped him, he must have wanted something, after all nothing on Cybertron was free for AlleyBots.

The medic sadly looked at the cynical AlleyBot on the medical berth and sighed inaudibly; barely a vorn old and already so suspicious and bitter. What must have happened to him to have caused this, Ratchet didn't even want to comprehend. He pinched the bridge of his nose and vented tiredly.

"I helped you because it was the right thing to do, not because I wanted something from you"

The shrewd glare he received for this reinforced his belief that the younger mech wasn't going to take anything but the straight story, and this irritated him.

"Look, I saw you collapsed near my surgery, what exactly was I supposed to do, leave you to die?!"

Nightfire eyed him harshly.

"Why not, after all, ah'm just a fraggin' AlleyBot ain't ah, ah'm lower than de miners an' gladiators ta ya righ'?"

His bitter tone made him sound much older than he actually was as he looked at the various patches and tubes attached to his injured leg as well as the various patches covering the other injuries on his skinny frame. Sighing, he lowered his head to lay it on his forefeet.

"Regar'less medic, you 'ave my thanks, tho' ah dunno why. Takin' me in after all ain't 'xactly good fer business now innit?"

The medic looked up in surprise, having been brooding over the sobering words of a vorn-old AlleyBot.

"I don't need thanks for doing the right thing kid. My names Ratchet by the way, not 'medic'."

As Ratchet turned to leave, his audios just caught the reply:

"Nightfire, meh name's Nightfire."

Ratchet closed the door to the room containing the young AlleyBot and rubbed his hand to his faceplate. No matter how he looked at the situation, the kid was right. Most Cybertronians had no tolerance of AlleyBot's and if anyone found the young mech in his surgery, there would be trouble, lots of it. Ratchet himself had no problem with the AlleyBot's, after all was it really their fault that they were different from everyone else? The AlleyBot's were dangerous, powerful warriors and because of this, the Council feared and persecuted them, leading them to turn to lives as gladiators, thieves and mercenaries to make ends meet. Ratchet shook his head in irritation and moved away from the private room. There was nothing he could do and he had other patients to treat; all the youngling needed now was rest and regular energon, something he wouldn't get once he returned to the streets. Ratchet knew that he couldn't make the young mech stay, which would increase their chances of getting caught and prosecuted, something he wouldn't stand for.

Cursing quietly to himself about the unfairness of life, Ratchet headed to where all the spare parts and medical supplies were stored. He had to calculate how much of what he would need to replace for treating Nightfire so that none of the junior medical staff would suspect he was treating an AlleyBot. Not for the first time that day, he cursed Nightfire's size, the mechling was only just over a vorn old and already his shoulders would come up to Optimus Prime's waist; he was also showing signs of being an AlleyBot triple-changer, but he couldn't be sure about that for another vorn. Ratchet dreaded to think how big he would be when fully grown in another 3 vorns time especially if he was a triple-changer, they were said to be the tallest of AlleyBot's, not that he had ever seen one but he had seen image captures.

"Hey Ratch', what'cha doin'?"

Ratchet looked up and groaned under his breath, glowering darkly at the caller.

"Jazz, what are you doing here, you hate medical facilities."

Jazz merely grinned and sauntered up to Ratchet, the short silver Polyhexian virtually bouncing on his feet. The tiny saboteur smirked up at the crotchety medic.

"Now what kind'a welcome is that Ratch', I thought ya loved meh"

The excitable bot practically purred. His face suddenly grew serious and he looked up at Ratchet, concern written all over his face plates.

"I'm worried for ya Ratch', they've been sayin' you've brought an AlleyBot inta ya surgery ta patch 'im up"

Jazz looked away from his friend as Ratchet opened his mouth to protest.

"Now look, I don't 'av any problems with AlleyBot's, but I ain't every bot, they'll come for ya, an' tha kid, who I know you 'av stashed away somewhere."

Ratchet looked to Jazz in shock, but the little bot's optics were deadly serious. There were bots out there that would storm the surgery to get rid of his young patient, and drag him before the Council for 'fraternising with an AlleyBot'. The Council would probably just kill the AlleyBot, regardless of his age, one less AlleyBot to deal with in their minds. Optimus was trying to change the council's way of thinking with regards to AlleyBots and get the corrupt old mechs to recognise the AlleyBots sovereignty, as well as the fact that they were all Cybertronians, but it was like talking to a series of metal walls.

"Come with me Jazz."

Ratchet turned and headed back towards Nightfire's room. Entering with the saboteur, he wasn't exactly surprised to see the mechling carefully pulling the lines that attached to various monitors out of his leg with his teeth. The mechling looked up at the duo.

"Ah'm not deaf ya know, ah know ah've worn out meh welcome."

Jazz was confused as to how the AlleyBot even knew what they had been discussing. Even his own enhanced audios couldn't have picked up their whispered conversation three corridors away. Nightfire grinned smugly and gestured to the audio fins projecting from the sides of his head with a forefoot.

:_Deese ain't just ta mek meh look good ya know, ah 'eard everytin' ya said_:

Both bot's jumped at the voice in their heads, kicking themselves for forgetting that AlleyBot's were telepathic. The young AlleyBot laughed at their reactions.

Shaking his head at the brat, Ratchet moved over to the monitors, turning them off before they started setting off any alarms. Jazz moved over to Nightfire to help him remove the rest of the lines.

"You're right kid, we need to get you out of here, and preferably out of Iacon as well."

Nightfire's head shot up in shock nearly headbutting Jazz and causing the silver bot to fall back with an unmechly yelp.

"Iacon! Wat am ah doin' in Iacon?!"

"You're not local?"

"Pit no! Ah'm from Kaon, d'ya no' know dat Kaonites look diff'ren' fro' Iaconian's! 'ow did ah get 'ere?!"

Nightfire's already large optics were wide in panic as he blurted out his questions.

Ratchet and Jazz looked at each other in surprise. Ratchet quickly checked the data pad that he had put all of Nightfire's medical information on. He nearly glitched when he saw that he had recorded Nightfire's injuries to have been around 7 orns old. He stared at the AlleyBot in shock; that was quite the distance to travel, he must have walked almost non-stop to make it to Iacon. Then again, he probably had.

"Kid, you travelled all the way here from Kaon in 7 orns!"

Nightfire's head-spikes paled as the information sank in. 7 orns?! He curled in on himself, a tidal wave of shock and sadness crashing down on him.

"7 orns, dat's 'ow long it's really bin?"

He looked so lost and upset that Jazz heaved himself up onto the medical berth and put his hand on Nightfire's shoulder. The saboteur was surprised to feel the mechlings shoulder shaking and quickly realised the stoic young mech was actually crying, coolant streaming down his cheeks.

"What's got ya so down kid?"

Nightfire looked at him with hard, yet watery optics.

"Mah folks 'ave bin offlahn fer 7 orns now; murdered, bah de order of de **Comman'er** 'imself."

Nightfire's tone was harsh and angry, yet mocking when he referred to the current leader of the AlleyBot's; as he kneaded the berth with his forefeet, leaving gouges in the metal.

"Why…why'd 'e do it? We 'adn' done nuthin 'rong."

Jazz and Ratchet stared at the drakelet in horror, their sparks going out to him. Jazz looked over to Ratchet.

"There's gotta be somewhere 'e can stay 'till 'es back on his feet."

Ratchet looked at Jazz sharply.

"Are you going to take him? Polyhexian's are more open to AlleyBot's than Iaconians and Polyhex isn't that far away."

After a moment's thought, Jazz face-palmed, cursing under his breath.

"Ah could take 'im, but I've got Prowler stayin' with meh, I dunno what 'e thinks of AlleyBot's, 'im bein' Praxian an' all."

Nightfire looked up as he removed the final wire from his leg and very carefully jumped off the berth.

"No 'ffence Jazz, ah don't need nobodies charity, an' ah doubt ya frien' woul' be to 'appy 'bout meh bein' at yer place."

Nightfire hissed slightly in pain as he attempted to shift some of his weight onto his still healing leg. Ratchet moved over to stop him from using the limb, commandeering Jazz to support the young mech.

"Kid, you're not going to get very far on that leg, not without medical assistance"'

Ratchet looked Nightfire in the optics as the AlleyBot opened his mouth to protest.

"Let us help you, we're not doing this out of charity, but because we want to you stubborn bratling."

Jazz had let out an indignant squawk at being used as a crutch, but easily supported the AlleyBot's weight. He couldn't help but notice just how light Nightfire was, his spark sinking at the disheartening realisation that Nightfire had been starving. Picking up on the errant thought, the young AlleyBot glared at the saboteur supporting him.

:_Ah don' need yer slaggin' pi'y, ah got mesel' dis far, ah'll live_:

Jazz flinched at the harsh telepathic tone, Nightfire had been dealt a bad hand, and yet the stubborn mechling seemed determined to keep it that way instead of accepting help. He stumbled slightly as Nightfire shifted his weight onto his three good legs and headed for the door, ignoring Ratchets demands to stay for treatment. When the medic moved to intercept the young AlleyBot a quickly swung tail knocked him off his feet. As the door opened, the young AlleyBot looked back at to two bot's who had helped him; he gave a brief nod before limping through the door, heading for what he hoped was the back entrance. Ratchet and Jazz stayed where they were, frozen in shock, as the young mech left. Ratchet cursed the stubbornness and pride of the AlleyBot, if Nightfire's leg got infected again, there was every chance it would kill him. He heaved himself up of the ground and resolved to wait, hopefully he would see the angry young mech again.

**A/N: Edit 5/4/15: Just altered the format to clear up the dialogue**


	4. Chapter 3

Ch. 3

_(3 vorns, 5 orns later)_

Nightfire glared harshly at his opponent as he sunk into a fighting crouch, his old leg injury flaring in protest at the action. Since leaving Ratchet's surgery, the tall triple-changer had headed back to Kaon, intent on fighting as a gladiator in the Pit; he was going to need to learn how to kill, without mercy, if he was ever going to avenge his parent's murders. At first, the mechs that ran the Pit had laughed at him, he was a half-starved AlleyBot with a bad leg. But they tested him anyway, thinking it would be amusing to see the youngster torn to pieces, but when he had torn the throat out of one of their assessors when backed into a corner they had very quickly signed him up. He had still been made to install a battle-computer and combat protocols, causing no end of emotional damage to the youngster but ensuring that he became a much better fighter.

That had been the start of a very illustrious gladiatorial career, all the time he got taller, more skilled and meaner; killing his opponents with a cold detachment. Now he was nearly full grown, he had only one more growth spurt yet to deal with, he was one of the best gladiators in the Pit. Bringing his mind back to the present, he skated forward on his wheeled feet in a fake lunge, laughing darkly when the mech he was supposed to be facing scrambled away from him. This was insulting, this bot was new to the Pit and didn't stand a chance, not against a seasoned fighter like him. Nightfire chose to end it quickly, accessing his speedster legacy, he easily got up into the other bots face and slid a knife into his spark before the mech had a chance to react. Ignoring the crowd's raucous cheers, Nightfire skated out of the arena and headed over to the only bots he could tolerate in the Pit, deactivating his combat protocols as he approached. The two older mechs; one red, the other yellow, looked up as Nightfire came over, the red mech lifting his energon cube in greeting.

"Nice one kid, but ya know ya'll get less fir a fast kill on payday dontcha"

Nightfire glowered at the speaker as the last of his regular armour shifted into place.

:_Shaddup Sideswipe, ah know but 'ee was jus' a two-bi' rookie, ah don' like wastin' mah skills on rookies_:

Sideswipe raised his hands in a placating gesture, the 17 vorn old bot looking to his twin: Sunstreaker; for help but the yellow twin just shook his head, Sideswipe should have known better than to comment on Nightfire's latest kill. Sunstreaker ran his blue-violet gaze over Nightfire's lean, gawky frame, taking in the few injuries that littered it from the day's earlier fights.

"Ya did good Night', ah'll give yer dat. Le's get outta 'ere 'fore dey try ta toss 'nother rookie ta us."

Nightfire nodded as he left with the twins, the three bot's were close; the twins had pretty much adopted Nightfire as a younger brother, although their personalities couldn't be any different. Sideswipe was perpetually cheerful and hyperactive, even when fighting in the Pit while Sunstreaker was cold, quiet and antisocial to the point of being sociopathic, killing was just business to the yellow twin. Then there was Nightfire, with his dangerously short fuse and explosive temper, the AlleyBot was an unpredictable element, yet killing never got anything out of him, it was as much a part of his everyday life as getting his injuries patched up.

The three mechs skated to their accommodation in silence, constantly watching for the members of the new faction that had been popping up throughout Kaon. Whilst gangs were nothing new to Kaon, the Decepticon's seemed different from the average gang, for a start, they had managed to unite almost all the Kaonite gangs under their banner and had started to attract the miners, gladiators and factory workers as well. Every time Nightfire and the twins went to the Pit, they saw more of the purple Decepticon insignias. Sunstreaker kept watch as Sideswipe and Nightfire entered the hovel that was their home before following. Their home was two rooms, one for sleeping and one for eating, relaxing and patching up injuries and the low ceiling meant that Nightfire couldn't stand up properly; but it was home. Nightfire flopped onto the floor with a groan, ignoring the empty energon cubes that broke as he dropped onto them. He rolled lazily as Sideswipe headed for the energon dispenser and reached for the medical kit, his first opponent that day had managed to catch a glancing blow to his leg and it needed patching up before it got infected again. As he dealt with the injury, he thought about the news he had received earlier that day; it would make the twins worry if he told them, but on the other hand if he didn't, they would be hurt that he hadn't told them. He got their attention by clearing his vocaliser.

"Ah gotta call from Shattershock; 'ee wants meh ta figh' Overlord tamorro'."

The twins reactions were predictably enraged; Overlord was the top gladiator in the Pit for a reason. Nightfire hissed and rubbed his chest as the twin's emotions were blasted across their brother bond.

"Wat! Overlord! Fraggit Night', 'eel kill ye, wat were ye slaggin' thinkin'?!"

Sunstreaker was not happy, not happy at all. Shattershock was going to get his surrogate little brother killed at this rate. The yellow twin frowned at Nightfire, noting the defiant set to the younger mechs shoulders and jaw. He sighed.

"Night' ya gotta think 'bout dis, Overlord's killed more bot's dan ye, AlleyBot's an' triple-changer's too; wat am ah gonna say ta Glacialnova if ya git yerself killed eh?"

That one statement threw Nightfire for a loop, Glacialnova was a Kaonite femme that he was dating, and he even thinking of asking her to bond with him someday as well, he couldn't do that if he was dead. He shook his head angrily.

"If ah don' figh', Shattershock'll replace meh; ah'm not unbea'able, an' if ah win, ah can leave an' go challen' Omega."

That got the twin's attention; Nightfire was still obsessed with dealing with Omega 17, if he could leave the Pit then he would finally be able to get the revenge he was seeking. Sideswipe shook his head, there would be no changing of Nightfire's mind, not with that kind of incentive dangling over his head. it was no secret that killing Omega was Nightfire's goal and it was cruel of Shattershock to use that to make the young mech fight but that was the arena owners way. Slagger.

"Fine, if ya gonna figh' Overlord, we're with ya."

The red mech skated to their berthroom and soon came out with a package. He handed it to Nightfire.

"'ere, Sunny an' ah made dis fer ya, we was savin' it fer ya sparkday but ya gonna need it tamorro."

Nightfire quickly opened the package to reveal an energon bow, the weapon gleaming under the single light in the room. He ran his hand over the bow, smirking when his fingers felt the glyphs the twins had etched into it, his name and theirs, followed by the glyph for brothers. Lifting the bow up, Nightfire quickly made his way outside, the twins following. Finding some pieces of scrap metal, Nightfire lifted the bow, setting his fingers to the bowstring. As he pulled back, a bolt of energy formed, he released and the bolt shot into the scrap, obliterating it. The young mech whooped in delight and grinned at his older brothers. The twins grinned back as Sunstreaker skated forward, he showed Nightfire how the bow could collapse and attach to his hip. The yellow twin squawked as Nightfire pulled him into a plate denting hug as Sideswipe joined them. The twins congratulated each other across their bond, they were the only ones who could get Nightfire to act his age, other than Glacialnova, and it did their own sparks good to feel the genuine happiness from their not-so-little little brother.

"Alrigh' Night', go recharge, ya gonna need it"

The twins quickly chivvied the bigger mech back inside, trying not to let their worry show. Nightfire could die tomorrow, yet there was nothing the twins could do about it. Sideswipe looked to his twin, his blue optics worried.

"'ee migh' get 'imself killed tamorro Sunny, an' we can' fraggin' do nuthin 'bout it."

Sunstreaker nodded, shaking his head. The two brothers skated back inside, praying to Primus that Nightfire would come out of the fight tomorrow alive.

_(The next morning)_

Nightfire hit the ground hard and desperately rolled to avoid the blaster bolts that smashed into his previous position. Hauling himself upright, he swiped a trickle of energon from the side of his mouth, smearing it all over his cheek, and growled at his opponent, glaring through his cracked and chipped visor.

Overlord was as cruel and as skilled as rumours made out, if anything, they were severely under the mark. The red-opticed Decepticon, Nightfire could see the symbol proud on his shoulder, smiled as he threw the remains of Nightfire's left audio fin to the ground. The 'con was enjoying his first challenge in vorns; Nightfire had left several deep gashes all over the smaller mechs frame throughout the fight, and now the Decepticon wanted to play with this young upstart before killing him.

In Overlord's twisted and depraved mind this fight was as good as won as he delivered a hail of blows onto the younger mech. Nightfire picked up on the thoughts and gave a grim smirk; Overlord was overly arrogant and Nightfire was going to use that, and his new weapon, unknown to his opponent, to win the fight. He let Overlord think he was winning, gaining several new injuries and leaving very few in return. Block, uppercut, drop into a sweeping kick then erupt upwards to try and deliver a headbutt only to be knocked back by an elbow to the face, ignore the combat programming protests and error messages and instead focus on avoiding the energon axe Overlord had just activated. Nightfire inwardly chafed as he brought his blades into a blocking position to intercept the axe at the same time as firing his cannons into Overlords face, it was not his body that was taking a beating but his pride as well. He was grateful for the stronger armour that currently covered his frame, it at least protected his more vulnerable wing joints.

As he hit the floor of the arena again, Overlord started to signal the crowds for more noise, exposing his vulnerable chest and abdominal plating as he conducted the cheers. Nightfire inwardly sneered in disgust, Overlord certainly had a flair for the dramatic, how amusingly pathetic. The young AlleyBot waited until Overlord was facing him, sliding his bow into position. Overlord approached Nightfire, who just continued to lay there on the energon soaked floor. Nightfire remained motionless, allowing his battle-computer and combat protocols time to judge when to strike the other fighter.

Overlord faltered suddenly as his ruby optics met the AlleyBot's grim, yet defiant ones. Nightfire struck out in a blur of colour; and the cheers died away no-one was expecting what had just happened, nor what came next, except possibly the twins. Nightfire collapsed his bow and clipped it back onto his hip, having just shot Overlord through his abdomen, and stood up. He skated his way silently over to the frozen mech, enjoying the hush that came over the arena. Stopping in front of Overlord he cocked his head slightly, still smirking, before unleashing a barrage of armour shattering punches on the unsuspecting mech. Overlord collapsed under the onslaught as the younger and more violent mech added kicks to the mixture, soundly thrashing the so-called 'Lord of the Pit'.

Nightfire laughed, a harsh hollow sound, as he knocked Overlord to the ground. The downed and defeated mech whimpered pathetically as the mech he thought he had beaten stood over him. What was left of Nightfire's visor retracted as he stared down at Overlord's once proud frame; and felt a twinge of satisfaction as the beaten mech cringed away from the emotionless optics; optics that wouldn't have looked out of place in the face of a tired, bitter, broken soldier.

Deep down, Overlord realised that this was it, he had lost, and now he would pay the ultimate price for failure in the Pit; the price all fighters knew: offlining. This younger fighter would show him no mercy, the combat protocols all gladiators were forced to install made sure of that, just as if their positions were reversed he would not. The crowds remained silent as Nightfire's arm blade slid into position. Overlord noticed a single tear of coolant slip its way free of the young mechs optic, the kid was fighting the programming installed into him. He gave a minute shake of his head; the AlleyBot was causing himself more harm than good by hesitating, he should just let the combat protocols take over and finish the fight. The young AlleyBot looked Overlord in the optics as his blade hit home, one final look of sad, bitter understanding passing between the two.

The crowd remained silent briefly, before erupting into wild cheers at the new champion of the Pit. Nightfire just ignored them as he hung his head, combat protocols deactivating, he was exhausted and losing energon at a dangerous pace. The twins pushed their way into the arena and grabbed him just as his legs buckled underneath him. Shattershock had followed the twins into the arena and looked at Nightfire, the injured AlleyBot glaring back.

"Do ah 'av ta remind ya 'bout our deal slag'ead?"

Shattershock ground his teeth at the reminder, before he folded his arms.

"Yeah, yeah, yer free ta go."

Nightfire raised an eyebrow, Shattershock groaned.

"Fine! De twins are free ta go as well! Jus' get outta 'ere 'fore ah change meh mind."

The twins looked at Nightfire in shock, they hadn't known he was fighting to allow them to leave as well. Shattershock turned away angrily and stormed out of the Pit, muttering curses under his breath. Nightfire grinned weakly at his brothers.

"Surprise"

**A/N: Ta da! Another chapter done. R&amp;R please.**

**For those waiting for the next installment of Dino Prince, please bear with me; I've had to re-write some of it having had it back from my Beta**

**A/N: Edit 5/4/15: I've added a little more and changed the format to make it easier to read the dialogue**


	5. Chapter 4

**"-" = speech**

**:_italics_: = telepathy**

**_Italics_ = singing**

**{speech} = com's**

**[speech] = bond**

Ch. 4

_(That evening)_

**SLAP**!

"Yew fraggin' **MORON**!"

Nightfire's hand gently probed his dented check plate as he stared up at Glacialnova, his optics silently conveying his confusion and hurt to his raging girlfriend. The twins watched silently as the slim Kaonite femme folded her arms and snarled at her downed boyfriend, who was currently sprawled out on the couch.

"Don'chu try dat wit' me Nightfire! Yew coulda died out dere, wat was yew thinkin'?!"

The concern and fear in her ice blue optics cut straight through to Nightfire's spark. He pushed himself upright, mindful of the low ceiling and his freshly welded injuries, and pulled the angry femme close, resting a hand on her face. Their optics met, scared ice blue glaring into wild electric blue-violet. Nightfire offered a wry smirk, the new scars twisting.

"Hey dere, its gonna be ok now, ah won didn' ah, ah'm still 'ere righ'?"

Nightfire touched his forehead to his girlfriends' as she pressed her frame closer to his.

"Look, me an' da twins, we're free of de Pit, we can get outta 'ere now. Why dontcha come wit' us; … mebbe even … wit' me?"

Glacialnova looked up at Nightfire in surprise. Leave Kaon!? What was the tall triple-changer thinking; unless this fight had finally burnt out his logic centres, he should have realised that Omega 17 wouldn't tolerate Kaonites moving outside the city borders. Unless… Glacialnova leapt back and stared at Nightfire, her optics wide with shock. He wasn't…

"Yew wanna **CHALLENGE** **Omega**?! Are yew glitchin' or sumthin'?!"

Nightfire grinned, giving a nonchalant shrug.

"Yup, ah've wai'ed too lon'; ah'm gonna get dat glitch fer wat 'ees dun ta all de AlleyBots."

His grin turned dark and sadistic and he clenched his fists, chuckling quietly. His optics blazed with unhinged, murderous rage.

"Sides, dat two-bit scraple' brat of a 'hore-bot's gotta **pay** fer havin' mah sire an' carrier killed."

Sunstreaker moved in between the couple and guided Glacialnova back over to the couch, shaking his head when she tried to question him whilst Sideswipe stepped forward and rested a hand on Nightfire's shaking shoulder. Both brothers recognised the signs that Nightfire was close to snapping; bots got hurt when the young AlleyBot snapped and the twins knew when to tell the younger mech to take a walk. Nightfire looked down at his brother, the near insanity he usually hid so well showing clearly in his burning optics.

"Take a walk lil'Night, we'll talk to 'er."

Nightfire stiffened before nodding, jerking his shoulder out of his brother's grip, he headed off. Sideswipe winced as a cocky miner intercepted the unstable AlleyBot. Nightfire's fist smashed into the miners face plates, but he didn't even stop as the miner crumpled to the ground. He did stop though when the downed miner's companions surrounded him, angry for their friend and too overcharged to realise the danger they were in. Nightfire sunk into a crouch, fists coming up into a ready position and battle armour sliding into place. His body language was screaming killer, but the drunken mechs continued on what the twins would describe as a smackdown of cataclysmic proportions, Nightfire style. Well, at least that's what Sideswipe would call it, Sunstreaker would call it slaughter, if he would deign to comment. The twins watched as the lead miner threw a sloppy punch at Nightfire's chest plates, and the ensuing fight which left all the miners unconscious save one, who Nightfire had pinned to a wall by his throat. The miner spluttered and whimpered as Nightfire held an energon stained knife to his vulnerable neck cables, his face twisted into a feral sneer, visor cold and unreadable. Noticing the sickened look on Glacialnova's face, she was a tough femme but she had never seen Nightfire loose it like this, Sunstreaker decided to intervene; he darted forwards and grabbed Nightfire by the arm, wrenching him back.

"Dat's **enough** Nightfire! Dat's enough; yew ain' a murderer, don' be star'in' now."

Nightfire's head snapped round in shock; he looked around at the beaten miners, then at the one he was choking. He dropped the mech like he had just been scalded and his visor retracted, revealing his shaken optics. He skated backwards, staring at the energon on his hands. He threw a look over to his brothers and girlfriend before vanishing in a blur of colour as he ran. Sunstreaker cursed and looked to his twin.

"Track 'im **now**!"

Sideswipe nodded and focused on the bond he and his twin shared with Nightfire. After a tense few minutes, Sideswipe looked at his brother.

"'ees gone ta 'is usual place, yew gonna go or d'ya wan' meh ta go?"

Sunstreaker didn't answer immediately, so Sideswipe skated over to his twin. The two brothers looked at the beaten miners, then back over to Glacialnova, who was still frozen with shock. Sunstreaker vented and shook his head.

"Ah'll go after lil'Night, yew talk ta Glacial … if she's gonna come wit' us … dere's some thin's she's gotta know."

Sideswipe stared at his twin, nodding sharply and skating back over to Glacialnova. Sunstreaker took off, skating swiftly through the alleyways of Kaon. He skidded to a halt outside one of the smaller alleyways, listening to the hitched sobs coming from the rusted remains of a lean-to. Sighing, he made his way over and inside; Nightfire was sat against the far wall of the lean-to, his knees drawn up to his chest, hiding his face. Nightfire's shoulders shook as dry sobs wracked his frame. Sunstreaker carefully manoeuvred until he was sat next to Nightfire. Silently he wrapped an arm around the crying youth's shoulders and settled down to wait.

_(With Sideswipe and Glacialnova)_

"Sideswipe, wat da frag jus' 'appened dere?!"

Glacialnova rounded on the remaining twin. Sideswipe looked at her with unreadable optics. Glacialnova frowned, she had never seen him this serious and it worried her.

"Lil'Night's had a fraggin' ba' star' in life, dis ain't da first tahm 'ees snapped. 'eel 'av gone ta 'is first 'ome, 'fore 'e met meh an' mah twin."

Sideswipe re-entered the apartment and collapsed onto the ancient couch, resting his head in his hands. Glacialnova sat on the floor, having followed the smaller bot inside, and waited; she didn't want to push Sideswipe too far too soon. After a few minutes, Sideswipe looked at the femme, his blue-violet optics hard.

"Wat ah tell ya now, ya don' spill. Got it? Mah lil'bro's story ain' fer gossip."

Glacialnova nodded her head swiftly, she wouldn't betray the trust the twins were putting in her to hear her boyfriend's tale. Having received Glacialnova's promise, Sideswipe settled himself down, and began to tell the sorry tale.

_(With Sunstreaker and Nightfire)_

Sunstreaker looked down at his brother. Nightfire had cried himself into exhaustion and was currently dozing, his head on Sunstreaker's shoulder. The older mech loosed a long sigh and looked around the remains of the abandoned lean-to - Nightfire's old home. He smiled slightly when he spotted the small memorial he had made for Nightfire's parents; Nightfire had been so happy to be able to place it in the remnants of his first home, it was one of the few times he had smiled since entering the Pit. The twins had hoped that he could begin to get over the murders of his parents, but he still obsessed over Omega 17. Sunstreaker was worried about Nightfire, and he knew his twin was as well; they were worried the young mech was becoming more volatile and pushing the boundary between sanity and insanity to breaking point. But it was times like this when the shell Nightfire had built around himself fell away, Sunstreaker realised just how young he really was, and just how much the life he was leading was breaking him. He cursed Shattershock and the other arena owners for forcing a battle-computer and combat protocols onto his little brother. The additions caused Nightfire to repress a lot of his emotions and block off any empathy he may feel towards his opponent, leaving the young mech facing an onslaught of emotional baggage and guilt whenever those systems came offline. He was knocked out of his musings as Nightfire stirred, the young mechs optics blinking as he came back online.

"Ya 'wake now lil'Night?"

Nightfire looked at his brother with surprise, shock and fear radiating in his optics. He shifted away from his brother and looked at his energon stained hands.

"'Ow'd ya do it Sunny? 'Ow can ya stan' ta be roun' meh…ah'm all broke inside."

Nightfire glared at his shaking hands in disgust.

"Ah ain' nuthin but a slaggin' killer; mah sire an' carrier mus' beh so mad at meh. Ah still see dem, yanno? Ah see all de mechs ah've fraggin' killed wen ah try an' rechar', dey all 'ate meh an' ah don' blame dem."

He looked at his big brother, coolant brimming in his miserable optics.

"Wat's wron' wit' meh Sunny; why can' ah not beh broke?"

Sunstreaker felt his normally hard spark break at the anguish in Nightfire's tone; he pulled Nightfire back into a hug. He started to gently hum a few bars of an old song he had once heard, remembering how it had helped with both Sideswipe's and Nightfire's bad dreams. Not that anyone other than his two brothers would ever know of his 'soft' side, buried so deep beneath his cold, sociopathic arrogance that even Nightfire and Sideswipe had trouble finding it sometimes. He preferred to let his emotions out in art anyway, music was normally Nightfire's way of venting. Sunstreaker had seen the few data pads Nightfire kept his songs on, the young mech was good, even if several of the songs were so full of emotion it hurt.

"_Well ah 'eard dere was a secret chor'; dat Zeta played an' it pleased da Lord_

_But ya don' really care fer music; do ya?_

_Well it goes lahk dis, de forth, de fifth; de minor fall an' de major lif'_

_The baffle' Prahm composin' 'alleluja_

_'Alleluja, 'alleluja, 'alleluja; 'alleluja …_

Sunstreaker finished humming as Nightfire relaxed; the younger mech's tears finally stopping. He looked Nightfire square in the optics.

"Now yew lissen good lil'Night; dere ain' nuthin wron' wit' ya, dose bots dat ya offlahned woulda've killed yew if ya didn' kill dem. Dey wouldn' 'ave no issues an' yew shouldn' neither; ya jus' need remahndin' now an' den 'kay? Now, 'ows 'bout we go back ta Sides an' Glacial and star' plannin' on 'ow de four of us are gonna get ta Simfur yeah?"

Sunstreaker's grin turned sly.

"An' mebbe yew an' Glacial can spen' some more tahm wit' each other."

Nightfire gave a laughing groan, shaking his head in mortification.

_(With Sideswipe and Glacialnova)_

"So no' ya kno', 'kay? Lil'Nigh' ain't 'ad it easy, bu' yew, meh an' Sunny, we 'elp 'im; we keep 'im sane righ'. So don' go bailin' on us no', 'ee needs ya."

Glacialnova nodded, her optics glistening with unshed coolant. Her vents hitching slightly, she chose not to speak, fearing tha if she spoke out loud, she may actually cry.

:_Ah promise Sides; ah'_ _ain' goin' nowhere; 'cept wit' Nigh'fire_:

Sideswipe flashed an approving grin; looking up as Sunstreaker entered. The yellow twin looked at Glacialnova, an unreadable emotion in his optics. He nodded his head towards the door.

"Nigh' wan's ta talk ta ya. 'Ees ou'side."

Sideswipe looked at his brother in surprise.

[Bro'?]

[Shaddup Sides, dis is 'tween dem]

Sunstreaker watched as Glacialnova walked out of the door. The twins followed, but stopped in the doorframe, watching the two young AlleyBots. Nightfire was struggling to meet Glacialnova's optics as she carefully approached. Taking her wariness as a sign that his earlier behaviour had scared her Nightfire immediately backed off slightly and held his hands out apologetically.

"Glacial ah…ah… aw frag; ah'm sorry fer scarin' ya."

Glacialnova smiled as she closed the gap between herself and Nightfire, resting her head on his broad chest.

"Ah kno' Nigh'…ah kno'."

Nightfire smiled gently as he cupped her face in his hand and started singing, his rough voice sounding throughout the street. It was one of the duets he had written when he was feeling lucky that he had Glacialnova in his life. He hadn't wanted to show her at first but she had loved it, it was their song.

"_'Ow can ah jus' let ya wal' away; jus' let ya leave wit'ou' a trace;_

_Wen ah'm standin takin every vent wit' yew, yer de only one 'ho really knew meh at all…_"

Smiling back, Glacialnova joined in; her melodic voice dancing through the air.

"'_Ow can yew jus wal' away from meh, when all ah can do is watch yew leave;_

_Cuz we share de love ta en da pain, an' even share da tears… yer de only one 'ho really knew meh at all_

_So take a look at meh no', dere's jus' a empteh space;_

_Dere's nuthin lef' ere ta remain meh, jus' a memory of yer face._

_So take a look at meh no' dere's jus' an empteh space an' yew comin' back ta meh is agains' all odds an' dat's wat ah've gotta face…_"

The two bots kissed as Nightfire continued the song.

"_Ah wish ah coul jus' make ya turn 'roun'; turn 'roun' an' see meh cry;_

_Dere's so much ah need ta say ta yew, so many reasons why… yer de only one 'ho really knew meh at all_"

The two bots began to sing together, their voices joining in harmony.

"_So take a look at meh no', dere's jus' an empteh space;_

_Dere's nuthin lef' 'ere ta remain meh, jus' a memory of yer face._

_So take a look at meh no' … cuz dere's jus' an empteh space …but ta wait fer yew, it's all ah can do, and dat's wat ah've gotta face_

_Take a good look at meh now… cuz ah'll be standin ere; an' yew comin bac' ta meh, its agains' all odds an dat's de chance ah've gotta take…da chance **we've** gotta take_"

As the two young bots finished singing and just stood in the street, Glacialnova snuggled in Nightfire's chest, the twins grinned at each other. Maybe, just maybe, things were going to turn out okay.

**A/N: Another chapter :) R&amp;R please, I would really like people's input on how I am doing with this.**

**A/N 2: Edit 02/18/2015: Sorry, I forgot, I don't own the songs Hallelujah or Against all Odds**

**A/N 3: Edit 5/4/15: Just changed the format for easier reading**


	6. Chapter 5

Ch. 5

_(1 orn later)_

Nightfire looked down on Simfur, his optics hard. Four vorns had gone by since his parents had been murdered and finally, he could; he would, avenge them. Shoving the dark thoughts to one side, he turned away from the city proper and looked at the large gathering of AlleyBots. When the word had got out that there had been a challenge to Omega 17, AlleyBots from all over Cybertron had gathered on the plains outside the city. There were two camps: those who had flourished under Omega 17's leadership or who sought to gain favour with the corrupt commander; though they were few. The other camp held the majority of the population who supported Nightfire and an end to the tyranny of the Omega line. There hadn't been such a gathering since the last Commander Challenge almost three hundred vorns ago. Dividing these two camps was the arena in which Omega 17 and Nightfire would fight, possibly to the death, to decide the future of the AlleyBots.

Nightfire cast a thought to all the new mechs and femmes he had met over the week leading up to now. Amongst his supporters were GlacialBlade: Glacialnova's older Polyhexian sister; that had been a surprise until Glacialnova revealed that her carrier had been a Polyhexian, not a Kaonite. There had also been the Iaconian brothers Jacker and Kicker, Vosian twins Sureshot and Surestrike, and a lean Kaonite mech named Nightpyre.

Sideswipe had noticed the similarities between Nightfire and Nightpyre: they shared similar looks and paintjobs, only Nightpyre was black, red and silver instead of blue, black and silver. It had come as a major shock to both mechs to find out that they shared the same sire. As it turned out, Firebite had been with another mech: Pyro, and Nightpyre had come from that union. After Pyro offlined from starvation; another crime that Omega had to answer for, Firebite had sought comfort with Nightpyra. Once Nightpyre had grown up and left, this turned into a relationship which led to Nightfire. Both mechs were surprised to discover their relation, but agreed that it changed very little; Nightfire was fully grown and had brothers in the form of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, there wasn't a role for Nightpyre to fill other than one of a friend. The older Kaonite had been saddened, but he had understood. His half-brother didn't need him in that sense, not anymore; the Vanisher hadn't been there when he was needed.

Another surprise supporter was a Simfurian mech, one Nightfire had seen before. The last four vorns had not been kind to CodeRed, he had suffered for his loyalty to the now deceased Prime and had been left a bitter, emaciated and incredibly paranoid mech. Yet he was not afraid to show with whom he would throw his lot in with; he seriously believed that Nightfire could exact the justice that was so long overdue, and his support swayed several other AlleyBots who would have been perfectly happy to sit on the fence otherwise.

Nightfire was again disturbed from his musings as Glacialnova came over and stood with him.

:_Yer gonna figh' dat slagger Omega tamorro'_.:

:_Yeah_:

:_Jus' promise meh one thin' dear spar': ya come bac', ya hear_:

Nightfire looked at her, his optics sparkling in the late afternoon sun. He kissed her gently.

:_Ah promise swee' spar'; ah promise_:

_(The day of the fight)_

The day had dawned with a red sunrise, almost as if the heavens themselves knew that energon was to be spilled that day. By the time the sun set, there would only be one who would walk away victorious, leaving the other to fall into darkness and obscurity. Nightfire onlined early, a spark of anticipation dancing in his tank. This was it - in a few hours, it would just be him and Omega in the arena; fighting, each with their own goals. He sat up, rubbing a hand over his face to clear his optics and looked around at all the other early bots. He skated over to the makeshift canteen that had been set up and snagged a cube of medium grade energon, although the high grade was tempting he was going to need all his focus today. Sitting on a more comfortable boulder, he lapped at the energon, allowing the fuel to slowly wake him up.

As he drank, numerous AlleyBots called out encouragement as they went to collect their own cubes, their words helping him to steel his resolve; as if it needed the help. Nightfire frowned, lowering his cube and staring into its depths. So many AlleyBots were counting on him to win today; it was daunting really, the faith everyone had in him. As the camp became more and more active the AlleyBot elders already heading to the arena where they would be acting as stewards, Nightfire chose instead to return to where he, his brothers and Glacialnova had been camping. If today was to be the day he offlined, he may as well spend his remaining hours with those he loved and cared about.

The twins met him as he skated up, their optics full with equal mixtures of pride and fear. Sunstreaker reached up and pulled Nightfire into a hug, his voice betraying him. Sideswipe joined in the brotherly act, giving Nightfire a tight squeeze.

"Yew betta come bac' ta us, ya go' dat lil'Nigh'? Cybertron won' be … da fraggin' same … wit'ou' ya."

Sideswipe's voice cracked slightly as he pulled away from Nightfire, his twin nodding silently. As the twins moved back, Glacialnova moved forward. Grabbing Nightfire by his audio fins, she pulled him into a fierce kiss. Nightfire easily returned the kiss, one hand on Glacialnova's back while the other cupped her cheek. They held the kiss for several seconds, the passion of their kiss intensifying.

An awkward cough from one of the twins caused them to break the kiss, Nightfire still holding his girlfriend to him as he glowered at his brothers. She rested her head on his broad chest, shuttering her optics as she listened to his spark. The twins left the young couple to go and find spaces from which to watch the fight, also knowing that Nightfire and Glacialnova needed some time alone. As the couple stood in silence, a loud blast of sound echoed throughout the camp, signalling that the fight was soon to begin. Nightfire looked up and towards the arena, automatically slipping into a more serious mind-set.

:_Ah've gotta go swee' spar'. Ah'll see ya afta de figh', Primus willin'._:

Glacialnova remained silent, although her optics brimmed with coolant. She quickly turned and warped to the arena before she broke down in front of her boyfriend.

Nightfire skated over to the arena, where he was met by a Praxian medic and one of the Polyhexian elders. Nightfire removed his bow and handed it over to the elder, followed by both of his hand-held blasters, his pulse rifle and his knives. He then stood silently as the medic disabled his subspace holsters, his cannons and removed his twin arm blades. His combat protocols and battle-computer were also disabled. These fights were to be fought without weapons as was the custom; the AlleyBot himself was supposed to be all the weapon needed. These fights were steeped in AlleyBot tradition including the lack of weapons and threat displays hearkening back to the days when AlleyBots were a lot more wild and feral then they were now.

Declared fight ready by another elder, this one a Vosian, he entered the arena to thunderous cheers. Nightfire raised a fist in acknowledgement, before glaring across the arena at his opponent. Silently, he assessed the Simfurian standing opposite him. Omega 17 was shorter and wider than him, his armour covered with tacky medallions and metal streamers. The Simfurian looked like had had never had to struggle for survival in his life, yet Nightfire was wary. Somehow this AlleyBot had remained in charge all these vorns, unless it was just his family's reputation that had kept him safe.

As the reigning Commander it fell to Omega to commence his display first. Spreading his wings wide and flaring his helm crest, he tipped his head back and loosed several audio splitting shrieks. As the shrieks died away the Simfurian drew himself up to his full height and snarled, lashing out in a series of punches and kicks before finishing with a surprisingly athletic reverse spin-kick and a final shriek. Nightfire remained thoroughly unthreatened, even raising an eyebrow to display how unimpressed he was. He then grinned and turned his back on Omega, showing off his wings. A deathly hush settled over the arena as the implications of Nightfires actions set in. By turning his back on Omega, Nightfire was basically saying that the other AlleyBot was too weak to be classed as a threat, even to his own weakest point. It was a very deliberate insult to use and had resulted in bot's being killed for the insult before, something Nightfire knew yet he still used the insult.

Nightfire knew damn well the uproar he'd just caused but it was his turn now. He took off from a standstill and flared his own wings before performing a series of complex aerial acrobatics. Landing on one knee he threw his head back and roared, displaying his sharp denta and allowing the paint nanites in his head-spikes to flush, turing the spikes a much brighter blue. Nightfire showed off his agility by back-flipping from his kneeling position into the air again. He landed, spinning on his skates, and lashed out with one of the more complex sets from Metallikato. He finished with a punch and a roar to thunderous applause and cheers.

As silence settled once again over the arena, Nightfire waited for Omega 17 to speak. Both AlleyBots would have their say before the fight began, for the fight itself would be in silence for the most part; no actual words were to be exchanged, so both opponents had to get their insults out of their systems. An uncomfortable silence settled over the arena as they waited for Omega 17 to speak. The Simfurian appeared to be struggling for words, especially after Nightfire's much more impressive threat display, but he finally calmed, an immature sneer twisting his features.

"Well, well, well. Lookee here, it's the liddle lost Prime's street brat."

Omega's sleazy tone sent shivers down many an AlleyBot's spine. He gave a lazy, cat-like grin.

"Why don'chu scurry on back to yer carrier liddle rat. Oh, but I forge', yer carriers' offline and rustin' ain't she?"

Even those unaware of Nightfire's history could see the relentless fury that Omega's statement had ignited. The younger AlleyBot was all but vibrating in his wrath, his optics blazing. As Nightfire's face twisted into a savage snarl, Omega 17 took a few wary steps back. Perhaps he had pushed too much, too soon. The Simfurian shook his head angrily, he was acting like he had already lost! As he struggled to collect himself, Nightfire skated forwards … his turn now.

"Yew fraggin' two-bit scraple' brat of a 'hore-bot; yer nuthin' but da Council's aft kisser. O' Prima, Prima; sto' bein such a carrier-fraggin' aft'ole yew rus' covere' pleasure bo'! Dere's so many ways ah wanna kill yew. Yew, 'ho ain' nuthin more dan a cowar' an' a oathbreak'r. Ah swore ah woul' kill yew someday, heh, an' now ah can."

Nightfire was laughing now as he aired his grievances for the entire gathering to hear. His tone dropped to a malevolent growl.

"Yer gonna offlahn taday Omega; yer a dea' bot, yew jus' don' kno' it ye'."

As Nightfire finished ranting he noticed Omega take another two steps back whilst in the stands his brothers and several other AlleyBots were laughing quietly at the insults he had thrown. Several others actually looked afraid, in their minds this kid was outright insane.

"**SILENCE**!"

One of the stewards came forwards, his glittering green glare quickly silencing the crowds. The old Tarnite held up a single hand.

"The fight for the rank of AlleyBot Commander between the challenger Nightfire and the current Commander Omega 17 will commence…"

A deathly hush blanketed the arena. The Tarnite elder dropped his hand.

"**NOW**!"

Nightfire wasted little time in initiating the fight. With a snarl he charged Omega 17 and aggressively body-slammed the smaller mech, sending him crashing to the ground. Omega quickly scrambled up again and lashed out with a kick that would have torn Nightfire's tank out if the bigger mech hadn't jumped over it. Taking a boxers stance, Nightfire attacked with a series of vicious right hooks and uppercuts, taking satisfaction from the grunts of pain every time one connected. Fighting without his battle-computer and combat protocols was nothing new if anything Nightfire took it as a learning experience, although he preferred having his combat protocols online. His battle-computer he could live without.

Omega attempted to take the fight to the air, spreading his wings as he prepared to take off, only for Nightfire to whip around and smash his spiked tail into Omega's left wing joint. Energon went flying as the spikes connected, ruining the appendage and preventing the other AlleyBot from flying. Omega snarled and responded with a brutal backhand, cracking one of Nightfire's jaw struts. Nightfire's optics narrowed behind his visor as he spat some congealed energon, as well as a fragment of his denta, onto the ground.

Growling, he headbutted Omega and as the smaller mech reeled back, Nightfire sunk his denta into Omega's exposed shoulder. Omega screeched and started to punch Nightfire's face, smashing his visor and exposing his more vulnerable optics, but the younger mech grimly hung on. Switching tactics, Omega began to claw at Nightfire's optics, leaving painful deep wounds in his face and severely damaging his optics. Blinded, Nightfire shook his head and pulled away, tearing vital components in Omega's shoulder and ruining the older AlleyBot's arm. Nightfire scrubbed at his face with the palm of his hand, trying to clear his vision. Omega took advantage and attacked, leaping onto Nightfire's back and trying to tear out his motor relays with his good hand. If he destroyed those Nightfire was as good as dead. The clawed feet of Omega tore into Nightfire's back, coming dangerously close to his wing joints.

Recognising the danger, Nightfire threw himself backwards, crushing Omega into the ground. Nightfire rolled off the squashed AlleyBot and pinned him under his knee. As Omega attempted to squirm free, Nightfire started smashing his fists into Omega's face. Soon the older AlleyBot's energon was dripping from Nightfire's fists. When Nightfire's audios no longer detected Omega's screams, the AlleyBot pushed himself upright and turned his back, only to stumble as a burst of pain erupted from his side. Nightfire's hand drifted to his side and came back sticky with his own energon.

He frowned, Omega didn't have an energy legacy nor was he a Radioactive; in fact, as far as Nightfire was aware, Omega was a Sonic, so how had he managed to pull off such an attack? Legacies were not allowed to be used during these fights anyway otherwise he would have used his to get the fight over and dine with. He turned to where he guessed Omega was standing. From the outraged cries coming from the crowds and the stewards, Nightfire ascertained that Omega had hidden a small hand blaster inside his armour with the intent of using it should it look like he was losing.

Enraged and disgusted that the corrupt bot didn't seem to know where to draw the line, Nightfire shot forwards with a sudden burst of speed. He quickly found that he couldn't catch what he could not see, so he used his telepathy to 'see' through an obliging Sideswipe's optics. He grinned as he finally managed to catch Omega. His hands found Omega's neck cables and with a swift movement, he crushed them with his bare hands. Omega's body went limp and with a final snarl, Nightfire allowed the body to fall to the ground. He spat on the ground.

"Res' in da Pit, fragger."

Nightfire stood over Omega's corpse: he had done it. It was over, he had won.

As cheers rang out around the arena, Nightfire tipped back his head and screamed his victory to the sky. As the twins and Glacialnova rushed forwards to congratulate him, his knees buckled as he collapsed into unconsciousness.

**5/4/15 Edit: Just changed a few things around and messed with the formatting for easier reading**


	7. Chapter 6

**I am so sorry this is so late; I've been suffering from major writer's block on this story ^_^' and it's only just abated. Here's a new chapter to hopefully set minds at ease.**

**Thanks to those who read, fav and follow. If you have read this, faved this or followed please leave a comment even if you are a guest, I'd love to read what you have enjoyed about Growing Up AlleyBot or what you think could be improved on. Same goes for my other two stories.**

Ch. 6

Nightfire onlined to total darkness. Frowning, he ran an internal diagnostics check focussing mainly on his CPU and optics. He was stunned when he received constant error messages back from his optics, even though the rest of the diagnostics readout came back as him recovering but getting better. Panicking he tried to get up, only to find himself unable to do so. Maxing out his other senses, his audios perked up as he heard an approaching figure.

Jacker frowned as he watched the young AlleyBots head move towards his hoof beats, his empty, blind optics searching for the source of the sound. Sighing the medic continued over to the berth the Nightfire lay on and began removing the medical overrides that were preventing the young mech from moving about and worsening his injuries.

"So, yer awake. How d'ya feel … Commander."

Nightfire frowned at the title, he hadn't been fighting for that, he had just wanted revenge and he had got it. Who was even talking to him anyway, it wasn't one of his brothers or Glacialnova, so it was possibly a medic; even so, who?

"Don' call meh dat, ah don' wan' ta be da Commander … dat's no' wat ah challenge' Omega fer. Ah'm jus' a figh'er, an' a broke one at dat, ah can' lead no-one. 'ho are yew anyways?"

Jacker reared back, shocked, and stared at Nightfire. He continued to check on Nightfires injuries as he contemplated what he had just heard.

"I'm Jacker, one of the medics. Kid, yew beat Omega 17. Primus yew killed 'im. Yer the Commander now, whether yew wanted it or no'. Ain't nuthin's gonna change that … **touch** that patch and **lose** those fingers!"

Nightfire retracted his hand away from his face, as if burnt. He wanted to know why he couldn't see, of course he was going to try and touch his face! Nevertheless, he wasn't about to tangle with a medic, now that he had a name to put to the voice, he remembered that Jacker was a no-nonsense medic. He was also infamous for throwing spanners at anyone who caused him trouble, something Nightfire had seen before and had no desire to experience first-hand. Huffing his annoyance, Nightfire shoved himself into a sitting position, ignoring the medics enraged curses. He waited for a brief moment; 3…2…1… and yep, here it came. Nightfire let out a pained yip as a spanner crashed into his still sore jaw. He turned his aching head to where the cursing was loudest, figuring that the noisy Iaconian was somewhere in that vicinity.

"Look medic, gimme it straigh'. Wat's da matta wit' mah optics, why can' ah see? Everytin' else is alrigh', so wat's da deal?"

Jacker shifted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, whilst shielding his thoughts from the other telepath. From what Jacker had seen of Nightfire before the fight, he had very little training on how to control his telepathy. As such, he couldn't 'turn it off' and ignore random thoughts, he 'heard' everything. Jacker had heard of such cases before, AlleyBot's who never learned to control their telepathy and as such hated their ability and some even utilised their lack of control as a weapon: viciously lashing out with aggressive telepathic attacks. Untrained or partially trained telepathy was dangerous as, unless any bot was particularly skilled at shielding his thoughts, every thought was vulnerable to being detected and 'heard'; this led to important secrets sometimes being uncovered like that Legacy Scandal mess several hundred vorns ago.

Jacker hadn't counted on Nightfire having enough training to detect that he was shielding, even if it was a basic ability, as the younger mech frowned, his sightless optics directed just to Jacker's left.

:_Don' bloc' meh Jacker; jus' wat are yew tryin' ta hide?_:

The tired medic sighed, might as well break it to him quickly. Less chance of him getting punched this way. Or worse, this kid was Nightpyra Prime's son after all. Although that didn't automatically mean he was the next Prime, he had the potential and that made him dangerous. Prime legacies were activated by intense emotional trauma, the bombshell that Jacker was about to drop may be enough and the medic was unsure whether or not his force fields would withstand the blast.

"The thing is kid … Omega did a lotta damage to yer face and optics, some of the damage I couldn't fix, not with the limited supplies I have. Kid … Nightfire … I'm sorry but … but… aw ferget it… you're blind. It's permanent … unless I can get you a complete set of replacement optics. I'm really sorry."

Nightfire froze on the berth. Blind?! Jacker's voice echoed around his mind. He was blind? How could this had happened, surely Omega hadn't injured his face that much? With trembling fingers, Nightfire reached up and ran his hands over his face. Thick, heavy weld scars and patches met his fingers as he followed the lines of his face up towards his optics. His fingers stilled as they approached the worst of the scarring directly around his optics. Jacker took a few steps back as Nightfire started shaking.

:_No…no, no, no, **NO**! Yer lyin' Jacker, ah can' be blind! Ah jus' can' be!?_:

Jacker looked sympathetically and tried to calm the younger AlleyBot down, quickly bringing up a force field so that the taller mech wouldn't lash out and injure him. As Nightfire slowly calmed his hands dropped into his lap and he sent a telepathic ping to Jacker, childishly asking that the Iaconian showed him what he looked like. Tentatively, Jacker responded, hoping that this would reassure Nightfire. Nightfire still recoiled as he saw himself through Jacker's optics, his entire body was covered in large scars and patched up in places. But the worst image by far was of his optics: surrounded by scars, the once proud electric blue-violet orbs were sightless, dead and grey; with his lost look he looked absolutely pathetic. He was a mess, worse still, he was crippled. He loosed an angry sob at his situation.

Nightfire roughly pulled away from the mental link and turned away, angry at himself, at Omega, at Jacker; and at the world in general. What had he done to deserve this, was this punishment for all the lives he had taken in the pit? If so, Primus was one cruel, sparkless sonofabitch. He didn't react when he heard the medbay doors open, nor did he turn to the approaching footsteps and skates. In his heightened state of telepathic awareness he did however, detect the presence of three familiar minds.

"Whyd'ya come 'ere yew three, though' yew'd be out 'avin fun, no' comin' ta see a blin' mech like meh."

The twins and Glacialnova froze at Nightfire's dead tone, just what had happened? Jacker hadn't told them anything except that they could see him today and this was the greeting they got. Blind? Why did Nightfire believe he was blind, surely Omega hadn't done that much damage during the fight. Glacialnova continued over to the berth Nightfire was still sat on and sat herself down next to him, cuddling into his side. She ran a hand gently over the scar on Nightfire's side, ignoring his flinch. She looked up at her boyfriend's face and gasped.

"Oh Nigh' … wat … wat happene' ta yer optics?"

She couldn't help but stare in horror at what had been Nightfire's most attractive feature, noting the lifelessness of the greyed optics. The scars she couldn't care less about, she had more than her fair share, but his optics … she had often enjoyed just staring into their tumultuous electric blue-violet depths. At her gasp the twins had come rushing over and were now staring with a mixture of horror and anger at the damage done to their little brother. Nightfire turned away from his brothers, his body language speaking for him, the pain and sadness cutting into both the twins sparks. Snarling with anger at his brother's sadness, Sunstreaker turned on Jacker and grabbed the Iaconian by his arms.

"Wat did yew do?! Fix mah lil'bro proper dammit!"

Jacker's ruby red optics turned cold as he pulled himself free from the sociopathic yellow twins grip.

"Repeat those words to meh again Sunstreaker, I **dare** yew. I did all I could alright but I can't work miracles. So if yew ever imply I didn't do mah job properly, I'll drop yew were yew stand an' use yew fer spare parts … got it?"

Sunstreaker looked mutinous as he backed away from Jacker. He threw a worried look at Nightfire before sharing a helpless look with his twin. Sideswipe put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Is dere anythin' dat coul' 'elp lil'Night see again?"

Jacker rubbed his chin, trying to think of a solution. He looked over to where Glacialnova was comforting her boyfriend. Nightfire had flinched sharply and deployed his visor, hiding his optics but not all the scars that now covered his face. Jacker studied the visor, an idea beginning to form. He threw a wary look at the twins, the last thing he needed was for them to react badly to his idea and make things worse. He liked having all four legs and both of his arms attached thank you very much.

He pulled the two brothers to the opposite side of the medbay.

"I have an idea, but I wanna run it past yew two first."

The twins looked at each other before Sunstreaker gestured for Jacker to continue.

"What I coul' do is get one of the other medics or one of the engineers to build Nightfire a face mask and visor to act as his optics instead, at least until I can get the supplies I need. It'll protect the still healing areas of his face as well."

The twins stared at Jacker. A face mask?! Nightfire would never allow himself to wear such an item, the proud, somewhat arrogant AlleyBot would see it as a weakness. Yet, if it gave him his sight back, at least until he could get his optics fixed, they may be able to persuade him to see reason and use it. Sideswipe looked to his brother, Sunstreaker's side of the bond was unsurprisingly a mishmash of uncertainty, anger and concern. Yes, there was a tinge of angry rejection … but the yellow twin knew that this was pretty much their only option if Nightfire wanted to ever be able to see again. Unhappy acceptance flooded across the bond.

[Sunny?]

[Ah don' like it Sides … bu' its de only idea that ain' 'alf fragged]

[True dat. Don' mean ah 'ave ta like it]

[Fer Night?]

[Yeah]

As one the twins nodded their agreement with each other before looking at Jacker. The Iaconian met their gazes easily, although his optics were wary. He knew of all three brothers by reputation and he really didn't want to see first-hand if the twins lived up to their reputation as well as their brother.

"Alrigh', we don' 'ave ta like it … bu' … we'll talk ta Nigh' 'bout 'avin a mask."

Jacker vented a sigh of relief, he had already being trying to figure out who he knew that could design and build the facemask. There was Jackhammer, but the lanky Tarnite engineer had a nasty habit of blowing himself and his inventions sky high whenever something went wrong. There was also his brother, but Kicker was an overly obsessive perfectionist, not to mention addicted to high grade, and Nightfire really couldn't afford to wait for orns. Still, those two were the only two Jacker would even consider asking given the timeframe and competency of the other medics that he knew. It was more of a question of would they agree to help, if he knew what was best for his own health Jackhammer would considering Jacker was his medic, and also would Nightfire agree to wear a facemask.

The twins left Jacker to his deliberations and skated back over to their brother and Glacialnova. Sideswipe dropped down onto the berth next to Nightfire and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Nightfire snuggled into his older brother's side and keened quietly, almost like a sparkling.

Jacker watched as the young AlleyBot's head dropped and his shoulders began to shake as the shock fully began to set in. He steeled his resolve. He would help the youngster to see again, even if it took him vorns. He turned away to give the small family some privacy and activated his comlink. His brother had better be sober.

**I'll hopefully write more soon, keep reading ^_^**

**Cyber cookies to whoever finds where Jacker has cameoed before and the previous chapter doesn't count!**


	8. Chapter 7

Ch. 7

_(7 orns later)_

"Nigh' put dat mask back on, yer gonna run inta dat wall at dis rate."

Nightfire threw an irritated look in Glacialnova's direction, ignoring the twin's huffs of agreement. Although his brothers had persuaded him to accept Jacker's offer for a facemask he had never agreed to actually wearing the damn thing.

It had been a long few orns for Nightfire and his family what with waiting for the facemask to be completed, then the somewhat uncomfortable operation to install the hardware into his CPU that allowed him to sync with the face mask's systems so that he could see. The brief moment of exhilaration he had felt when he had actually been able to see for the first time since the fight had since been dimmed by the harsh reality that he was now reliant on the piece of equipment if he wanted to be able to live his life as normal. He had learnt how to fight and get around without the mask, but his brothers still insisted on him wearing the blasted contraption.

Since Nightfire's release from Jacker's tender mercies they had moved back to their crappy apartment in Kaon, but life was hard and the political climate was making things worse. They could all feel it, war was becoming a more and more likely possibility. His hand dropped to his hip subspace holster where he had dumped the facemask for storage.

"Ah hate dis thin' Glacial, I don' wanna use it if ah don' 'ave ta … **oof**!"

His whining was cut off as he skated face first into the wall his girlfriend had warned him about. Startled and slightly dazed he staggered backwards before sitting down suddenly, shaking his head. Glacialnova couldn't help herself: he looked so funny sitting there, she just had to laugh. Her lyrical laugh echoed around, gaining the attention of the twins.

Sideswipe looked up to see Glacialnova gripping her abdominal plating as she was overcome with laughter while Nightfire was sprawled out on his aft in front of the wall. The red twin shook his head in amusement at the two younger bots antics. With the current threat of full blown civil war, and the constant small scale skirmishes between the Decepticon's and the Cybertron Security forces, it was good to see the two youngsters relax and let off steam.

"Wat are yew two playin' a'?"

Glacial giggled as she pointed to Nightfire's dazed form.

"He … he *_giggle_* ran inta da wall!"

Sunstreaker looked up at this and raised an eyebrow. He couldn't help but deadpan.

"Oh really?"

The atmosphere in the house seemed to have lifted for the time being as youthful laughter filled the apartment.

It was a significant improvement to the mood when they had returned from Simfur. Then the mood had been angry and somewhat betrayed. Nightfire's refusal to follow tradition had led to the elders offering him an ultimatum: become Commander or leave the Gathering as a neutral Cybertronian, in other words, exile. Nightfire had chosen to leave instead of lead the ones who had abandoned him when he needed help the most. He ran a hand over his left shoulder plating where his AlleyBot insignia had once been. When he chose exile he had deliberately taken one of his knives and had dragged it through the insignia he had worn since he had been sparked.

In some ways it was a final act of rebellion before Nightfire had left, all that was left now was a large scar and fragments of the insignia; and in others it was Nightfire's way of finally turning his back on his past. From what they had heard, Nightfire's actions had sent ripples throughout the AlleyBot community and with other AlleyBots also choosing to leave as well, the new Commander was having a tough time keeping the AlleyBot's together. In these times, an insecure leadership was not what the AlleyBot's needed and Nightfire guessed there would be another Gathering soon, not that he or Glacialnova would be attending.

Nightfire thought about the two sides of the escalating conflict on Cybertron. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Decepticons, not only had he killed a Decepticon in the Pit but there was just something about their leader Megatron that put him on edge. But then again, did he really want to join the Autobots? The rising faction was comprised mainly of soft-sparked civilians and other mechs that had no actual idea what it was like to live at the bottom of the pile, Nightfire was in no mood to be looked down upon for his origins. He knew though that the twins were beginning to consider leaving and signing up with the Autobots at their headquarters in Iacon. If the twins went ahead with their plan, Nightfire would go with them regardless of his personal opinions.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Suddenly the apartment complex was rocked by a series of explosions. All four bot's immediately stood up, all traces of hilarity gone, their systems tense and humming. Silently Nightfire reached into his subspace holster and removed his facemask. There was an audible click followed by a low buzz as Nightfire set the mask on his face and it synced with his systems. The young mech's battle-computer and combat protocols also fired up when they heard more explosions and panicked screams as well as the sounds of fighting causing the complex to shake again. Sunstreaker warily walked up to the door, unsure of what he would see outside. However before he could open the door it was blasted inwards, filling the room with dust and smoke. Sunstreaker fell back with a yell.

"Wat da **frag**!"

As the others tried to clear the dust from their optics an unknown bot entered, gun in hand. He looked around the dust filled room, a sneer plastered over his features, and levelled his gun at the coughing Glacialnova. His red optics were filled with sadistic amusement as the bots in the room froze, watching the gun cautiously. Nightfire knew he had limited options to retaliate what with the cramped conditions of the room and the twins were similarly handicapped, while Glacialnova wouldn't be able to warp away before a shot connected. His battle-computer came up with and discarded multiple strategies as it tried to find a way around their current predicament, giving the mech a splitting migraine.

"Well den … wat 'ave we go' 'ere?"

Nightfire snarled angrily at both his migraine and the mech, drawing one of his blasters to divert the intruder's attention away from Glacialnova. The Decepticon turned his attention towards him, his sneer turning into a bloodthirsty grin as he aimed the blaster at Glacialnova's spark. Nightfire's snarl elevated into a rumbling growl; the twins both drew their own weapons as the situation tensed. The Decepticon was either blind, stupid or both to be pulling a stunt like this with three experienced killers in the room. It most likely that the mech was just too stupid to realise the danger he was in.

"Its mah lucky day ain't it huh? I go' me three ex-gladia'ors an' deir bitchbot. Lord Megatron's gonna be real 'appy wit' yew lot … I migh' even get ta keep yer wh… **gah**!"

Nightfire had erupted forwards, raging at the lewd comments of the Decepticon, and body slammed him away from Glacialnova and out onto the street. Sideswipe threw an irritated look at the harshly venting AlleyBot.

"Did ya 'ave ta send 'im through da wall?"

Nightfire huffed as he headed towards the Con's motionless form, choosing to take the door rather than the new hole in the wall. He couldn't care less if he'd killed the bastard as long as he was out of the fight. The bot groaned as he came to, putting a hand to his dented chest plating. Nightfire crouched over him and quickly sent him back into oblivion with a rapid punch to the face. He looked up as his brothers and girlfriend as they also left the apartment. He knew that they didn't have a choice now, he'd just attacked another Decepticon which pretty much painted a target all over his scarred up back, so it was off to Iacon and the Autobots.

"We gotta ge' movin' … Cons are gonna be on our afts an' Iacon's a long way from 'ere."

Sunstreaker nodded as he moved past Nightfire and headed towards the sounds of fighting. The others followed, weapons out, as they approached what appeared to be a small scale war in the centre of Kaon. Nightfire, Glacialnova and the twins stared at the battle, unsure what was going on. As far as they had been aware the Autobots and Decepticons had only been fighting small skirmishes, not all out inner city wars.

"Look out!"

Nightfire was shoved to one side as a rocket flew past, detonating in a building behind them. He looked at the older bot who had just shoved him. The mech was tall and lean with bright Iacon blue optics, his paintjob grimy and dust covered but the red, silver and blue paint was still visible underneath. He had a silver, angular face that appeared both tired and wise at the same time, Nightfire had never seen anyone like this mech before. As the two mechs looked at each other, the older mech was pushed back slightly by Sideswipe, the red twin glaring slightly.

"'ho da frag are yew?"

The mech calmly looked at the quartet of Cybertronians.

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."

**So I've finally started to bring more canon characters into this fic. Next few chapters are gonna introduce more Autobots and the war.**

**R&amp;R please, even if it's just to say I need to rejig something I'd really appreciate feedback ^_^**


	9. Chapter 8

Ch. 8

Sideswipe shared a look with his brothers and a confused Glacialnova before looking back at Optimus. The Autobot leader continued to calmly watch the group. Optimus assessed the group in front of him. The red and yellow bot's were so similar in frame: strong armour and visible weaponry, they were probably Neutral fighters. However he was unsure about the two AlleyBot's that were with them: the femme with the purple, white and pale blue paintjob was small and slim, meant to deliver lightning fast blows or slip behind enemy line to collect intelligence. Then there was the visored, broad-shouldered mech towering over the others; he looked more like a frontliner, perfectly capable of fighting for long periods of time and both enduring and delivering heavy, devastatingly lethal attacks. Judging by his scuffed and scarred blue, black and silver armour he had had plenty of experience in that field. However the AlleyBot insignia's on both bots were damaged, almost like somebody had taken a blade to them yet neither the mech nor the femme had bothered to fix the damaged insignia's. All four bot's were covered with layers of dust, dirt and grime that spoke of a hard life on the streets of Kaon's slums. None of them appeared to be Decepticon affiliated, or even know who he was. The three mechs had perked up at his mentioning the Autobots, something Optimus hopefully took as a sign that they were looking to join up.

Eventually the silence was broken as a large, brawny Cybertronian wielding some of the biggest cannons that the twins, Glacialnova and Nightfire had ever seen. On instinct, Nightfire tensed and moved away from his brothers so as to allow himself a clear line of sight with his considerably smaller cannons. He was understandably wary, this bot was an experienced fighter and survivor judging by his scars and considerable weaponry.

"Prime! We got Decepticons everywhere, we gotta fall back … who're these lot?!"

The unknown bot levelled his cannons at Nightfire before switching targets and aiming at the twins and Glacialnova when they raised their own weapons. The situation appeared to be hanging on a knife edge when Nightfire's cannons hummed as they came online. The young mech growled threateningly at the other mech and aimed one of his cannons at the bot's head, the other at his spark. Nightfire knew from past experience he had to aim to kill, he may not have another chance again. Optimus reached out and firmly pushed the unknown bot's cannons down.

"Stand down Ironhide you're not helping …"

Ironhide threw an irritated look at Optimus before whipping around and shooting a Decepticon that had been attempting to sneak up on them. The Autobots cannons cut a wide swath in the swarm of Decepticons that had rushed out of the streets to attack them. As the fight intensified Nightfire shared a smirk with the twins, his combat protocols taking over, side-lining most of his emotion centres.

[Shall we?]

The twin's swords moved smoothly into position as their own combat protocols engaged. Regular armour pulled tight against protoform as stronger, more lethal looking battle armour slid into place over the top. Only the three brothers still had this sort of programming outside the gladiatorial arenas, a harsh reminder of their former careers. The process only took seconds and although already formidable, the trio were now the epitome of deadly purpose. The ultimate killers.

[Ah'm in.]

[Let's kick some Con aft!]

As the twins and their brother charged into the fray Nightfire noticed that Glacialnova had chosen to instead move to a different location in one of the nearby buildings and snipe any Decepticon that had escaped the main brawl. He frowned behind his mask, that wasn't like her, she usually preferred to fight in a more up close and personal manner: slipping in under her opponents guard to deliver swift attacks before warping out of reach. Confused, he opened a com channel with her.

{'Ey swee' spar', yew no' gonna join da fun?}

_PAGE BREAK_

Glacialnova jumped as the message came over her comlink. A hand drifted down to her slightly rounded stomach plating. He couldn't find out, not yet! That night after Nightfire had finally been released from med-bay, they had spent it together … in more ways than one … but she had never told him what they had created that night. They weren't even bonded for frags sake! She had only just had it confirmed by a medic anyway, that had taken some doing to avoid Nightfire's or the twins notice. Slag it was taking every ounce of training she had to ensure Nightfire didn't accidentally pick up on her secret. She was worried about Nightfire's reaction but at the same time she really wanted to tell him the fantastic news she had been keeping locked in her CPU. Banishing the thoughts for now, she ignored the com and focused on shooting Decepticons.

_PAGE BREAK_

To his surprise Nightfire was ignored. Scowling in earnest now he tried again.

{Glacie? Yew alrigh'? Talk ta meh, wat's da problem}?

Silence. Nightfire was getting worried now. He began to fight his way towards his girlfriend's sniper nest. He had noticed several Decepticons come close to the building before either getting shot or dragged back into the main brawl … what if one of them had planted explosives?! Nightfire's worst fears become realised when the building suddenly went sky high in a huge explosion.

"**GLACIE**!"

The twins finally cottoned on that something was wrong when they saw Nightfire desperately trying to get to Glacialnova's position. When the building exploded the bond was suddenly flooded with fear and panic. Realising the Glacialnova had still been inside, the twins charged towards the building alongside their brother. All around them the Decepticons were retreating, Ironhide's cannons encouraging a few stragglers. Nightfire was already digging desperately at the rubble, not even bothering to shut down his combat protocols. The twins joined him and then to their surprise, two other pairs of hands also joined in the digging.

_PAGE BREAK_

Optimus and Ironhide had seen the explosion and had heard the stricken cry of the AlleyBot mech as he'd launched himself at the collapsed building. The Autobot leaders spark went cold, the femme sniper had been in the building when the bomb went off.

"Ironhide make sure the Decepticons are in full retreat, our help is needed."

The brawny weapons specialist simply nodded and fired his cannons at any lagging Decepticons. Once he was sure the coast was clear he ran to join Optimus and the others in shifting the rubble. He took note of the surprised looks on the faces of the three still nameless mechs before concentrating on the rescue. He lifted a particularly large piece and let out a shout as he uncovered a single energon stained white and purple wing. As he began to dig further he was joined by the other AlleyBot, the young mech frantically digging away at the rubble. As they uncovered the femme the horrific state of her injuries were revealed. Ironhide shared a look with Optimus.

{Sir, if there's gonna be any chance that she makes it we've gotta get her to Ratchet. I've already signalled Silverbolt for extraction.}

The Autobot leader nodded in agreement and cleared his vocaliser to gain the attention of the other three mechs.

"We can provide medical assistance for her back at our base, our transport is already on its way. You're welcome to accompany us if you wish."

Optimus watched as the three mechs looked at each other before nodding as one. The red mech stepped forwards.

"We'll come wit' yew … but we don' want no trouble."

Optimus nodded at the reasonable statement As Silverbolt landed and opened up a white and red bot came charging out of the Aerialbot's hold. The mech stormed up to Optimus.

"Where the frag is my patient?"

Optimus gestured behind him and was unceremoniously shoved aside by the medic as he headed towards Glacialnova. Nightfire frowned, he'd seen this medic before. The white and red bot glowered at the tall young mech before, without warning, throwing a wrench at him. Nightfire cursed creatively as the tool smashed into his audio fin.

"So you did survive after all. I'm glad to see my hard work saving your ungrateful hide didn't go to waste."

Nightfire rubbed his sore audio whilst using his wings to block his brothers before they attacked the crotchety medic.

"Ah didn' think ah'd see yew 'gain Ratchet. An' ah neva di' thank ya fer savin' meh."

The old medic nodded and brusquely shoved the AlleyBot to one side as he continued on towards Glacialnova. The twins stared in surprise at their brother.

[Nigh'?]

[Cool yer cannons Sunny, dat's Ratchet. Ol' medic saved mah life 'fore ah met yew guys. He's alrigh', ah owe 'im bu' he's a good mech, he'll 'elp Glacie.]

The twins both rumbled uneasily but remained still.

Time seemed to stretch out painfully as the medic did what he could to stabilise the injured femme. Every now and again a blue light would flicker over Glacialnova's prone form as Ratchet continuously scanned her. Nightfire's spark jumped in its casing when the medic suddenly froze and rescanned Glacialnova's abdomen. Ratchet carefully repeated his action twice more before standing up and aggressively turning to Nightfire and his brothers, the wrench almost magically appearing in his hands.

"Which one of you rust-ridden **morons** **sparked her up**?!"

Hang on … Nightfire shook his head slightly, he could have sworn his audios just glitched, surely the medic didn't just say that …

"Well, I'm waiting. Who sparked her up?"

Yep, he said it. Nightfire nearly glitched in shock and couldn't keep from letting an astounded yell loose from his vocaliser.

"**WAT**!"

Shock, exhaustion and an almost empty tank suddenly caught up with Nightfire all at once as he realised that Ratchet had basically said he was going to be a sire. Sparks flying from his head-spikes as his systems glitched, his body did the only thing it could do in his situation.

The twins let out a startled cry as their brother collapsed to the ground. Ratchet threw an unsurprised look at a very surprised Optimus and an amused Ironhide.

"I guess he's the sire then?"

**So Ratchet's back and Ironhide's joined the party**

**Next chappie will be up when it's finished, thanks to everyone who has read so far ^_^, please review so I know what to improve on and what is good thanks**

**This story has art! If you access my profile and copy the DeviantARt link you can find some Growing Up AlleyBot related art on my DA profile. PM or contact me via review if you want to ask any questions**

**What's your fave line so far? Review to let me know ^_^**


	10. Chapter 9

Ch. 9

_(Medbay, Autobot Headquarters, Iacon)_

Nightfire onlined with a curse and an aching processor. Around him several medics rushed from berth to berth as they received the latest casualties from the war. One of them looked over at him, sneering slightly, before turning away and shouting towards an open office door.

"Ratchet sir! The AlleyBot's online. Should I get him to leave, he's taking up … **OW**!"

A wrench had come sailing out of the office and had struck the medic square in the face. The unfortunate medic soon found himself face to face with a seething Autobot CMO. The medic tried to back away only to collide with a bot standing behind him. He turned to find Sideswipe and Sunstreaker glaring viciously down at him. Ratchet grabbed the cringing medic by his scruff bar and dragged him towards the medbay doors.

"Out, **now**."

The medic's optics flickered in surprise.

"But…"

"I don't give a frag, **get out**. Unless you can maintain a slagging civil vocaliser you glitch-afted moron **and** get rid of your **Pit-fragged prejudice** I will **not** have you in **my** medbay. Go find another base that will take you, I'll speak to Prime about getting you transferred out of here before the next shift change."

His tirade over Ratchet roughly threw the trembling medic from the medbay and shut the doors in his miserable face. He turned back to the three brothers dusting his palms off as he did so, and grabbed a data-pad from the tray next to Nightfire's berth.

"Well you're back in the world of the online bratling. Am I to assume from your little glitch fit a few days ago that you're the fragger that got that femme sparked?"

Beneath his facemask Nightfire flushed. His headspikes also flushed turning a darker, more embarrassed blue. The twins threw him looks that somehow managed to look both amused and irritated. Nightfire noticed that both his brothers had the Autobot insignia proudly displayed on their chests. At Ratchet's irritated growl Nightfire turned his attention back to the medic.

"Well?"

Nightfire just nodded. The CMO vented and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"She and the sparklings are fine …"

Nightfire and his brothers were stunned. Sparkling**s** … as in **more** than one sparkling?! Nightfire couldn't help but jump up from the berth.

"**SPARKLINGS**?!"

Ratchet nodded irritably.

"Yes sparkling**s**, she's carrying triplets."

Nightfire sat down in shock and rested his head in his hands. **Triplets**? He was going to be a sire to **three** little sparklings?! He could barely make enough to buy energon just for himself, how was he going to feed three more mouths. Not only that, he didn't have a clue how to care for sparklings … what if he didn't make a good sire?

Ratchet ignored Nightfire's minor confidence crisis and gestured towards one of the private rooms.

"She's in there if you want to see her, just don't let her get up … her wings and legs are still healing."

Nightfire was up and gone in a blur of colour, leaving Ratchet talking to the twins and thin air. The CMO glared at the snickering brothers and whacked them both with a wrench, smirking when their laughter turned into pained whines.

"See to those two, I have patients to worry about."

As Ratchet turned towards the busier part of the medbay, a cheeky comment made him turn around and throw his wrench again.

"Sure thin' … Hatchet"

Clang!

"**OW, PRIMUS!**"

_PAGE BREAKER_

Glacialnova looked up from her berth as Nightfire barrelled into her room. She smiled gently watching as he warily made his way towards her, visor firmly fixed on the slight bump in her plating. Nightfire carefully placed a hand on the bump, transfixed, before he looked at her and removed his mask. A grin split his young, scarred face as he took one of her hands in his free one.

"We're gonna 'ave liddle spar'let's Glacie … dis is really happenin'."

She grinned, she loved it when he came out with the most painfully obvious things.

"Uh huh … Nigh'?"

"Yeah?"

She kissed him lightly on one of his scars.

"Love yew."

Nightfire smiled, she made his spark sing, and now they were going to start a family; maybe a little earlier than planned but still … it was going to be just the five of them and the twins. At least, once the war was over. Nightfire reached into his subspace pocket and retrieved his face-mask, setting it back on his face.

"Da twins 'ave already enlisted, ah'm gonna go do da same. I wan' our liddle un's ta grow up safe an' 'appy."

Glacialnova nodded, she wanted the same thing. She settled back onto the berth as Nightfire turned to leave. She looked down at her abdomen; Ratchet had said she had about eight orns before the triplets were due and she wasn't to enlist as an active fighter with the Autobots until she'd sparked. She hadn't been happy about that but at least she was allowed to help behind the front lines, mainly with Autobot Intelligence verifying Intel and helping to plan missions.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire left medbay and was quickly joined by the twins. Sideswipe decided to break the silence first.

"We'll take ya ta Optimus so yew can enlist then we can go ta our room, ah got us one we can all share …"

"We get proper wash-racks Nigh' … **proper** wash-racks. Ah can finally get all dis slag off mah platin'."

Nightfire and Sideswipe both shook their heads in amusement at Sunstreaker's vanity. They were no strangers to the vain twin's obsession with being clean and shiny but their limited funds had normally gone more towards ensuring that they remained functioning and had enough energon rather than buying cleaning cloths and waxes. Sunstreaker had never liked it but he was a practical mech and although he bitched and whined about the state of his paint it was all just talk. Now they had decent wash-racks, regular access to energon and a steady income though, Sunstreaker was going to indulge himself and keep his paint in pristine condition.

The three brothers continued down towards Optimus's office laughing and teasing each other. The twins moaned constantly about the Autobot SIC and how he apparently ate the rulebook for morning fuel and had one heck of a stick up his aft. It seemingly took very little time to reach the imposing door and for Nightfire to enter the large office. Optimus was sat at his desk reading a report when the AlleyBot entered while a lean black and white Praxian was sat stiffly in another chair, data-pad in hand. The Praxian looked up at Nightfire before looking back down at his data-pad.

"Am I to assume you are Nightfire?"

Nightfire was taken aback slightly … they sure didn't beat about the scrap metal here; that was good, he hated wordplay.

"Yeah …?"

The Praxian's wings stiffened slightly.

"I am Chief Tactical Officer Prowl, Second in Command of the Autobots. **You** may refer to me as Sir."

Nightfire inwardly snarled, the twins were right this guy had something uncomfortable shoved up his aft. He straightened up and flared his wings instinctively.

"Yeah **sir** … ah'm Nightfire."

Prowl frowned, somehow this AlleyBot managed to make that one word sound like both an insult and an acknowledgement of his rank. Nevertheless he continued on.

"What position in the Autobots would you be enlisting into?"

"Frontline comba' sir … altho' ah sometimes modify weapons an' explosives when ah'm bored. Ah modified all mah gear an' some of mah brother's."

Nightfire grinned, it had gained him an extensive criminal record but it had been worth it to modify his rifle, cannons and blasters. Now they packed bigger punches and had almost no recoil. Also his cannons could fire continuously for over an hour before they needed to cool down, even then that only took a few minutes thanks to the cooling system he'd rigged.

Prowl noted something down on his data-pad and continued his questions. Nightfire found them pretty easy to handle: age, family, training and special talents; stuff like that, but the final question made him balk slightly.

"Criminal record?"

Nightfire's headspikes flushed with embarrassment. He nodded sullenly, inwardly hoping that Prowl would not ask him to elaborate. He wasn't proud that he'd been caught doing some of the stuff he'd been punished for, having a rap sheet like his was a bit humiliating actually amongst the younger gladiators.

"What for and what punishments received?"

Nightfire winced.

"Stealin', ah've done 'bout three weeks total in holdin' cells fer tha'; assaul' twice but ah got off on self defense both times; possession of illegal explosives, ah thin' dat was mah longest time inside … ah spent 'bout two orns in da Stockade fer dat; an' … oh yeah, stree' racin', ah've got abou' twen'y or so warnin's an' a few fines …"

Both Prowl and Optimus were staring at the young AlleyBot as he listed his various offences with an air of surly embarrassment. As Nightfire finished his recital the two high ranking Autobots looked at each other before Optimus looked up at Nightfire.

"All right, that's enough questions. Could you please wait outside Nightfire, I believe Prowl wants to discuss a few things with me."

Nightfire nodded and left, trying not to reveal his concern that they wouldn't accept him into the Autobots because of what he had just revealed.

_PAGE BREAKER_

"Prime we can't take him! He's only been online for just over five vorns and yet he has a criminal record longer than Smokescreen's. And another thing …"

Optimus watched his SIC pace the office ranting about all the reasons they could not accept the young warrior, amusement dancing in his optics. Yes he knew Nightfire was incredibly rough around the edges, but there was something about the young AlleyBot, something that Prowl obviously hadn't noticed.

"He's his carrier's creation alright."

Prowl almost tripped over his own feet as he whirled to face Optimus, icy optics wide.

"You knew that mech's carrier?!"

Optimus nodded.

"I met Nightpyra Prime once, she'd made the journey to Iacon to protest the Council's treatment of several young AlleyBot's that had been incarcerated for stealing raw energon from a mine. She is probably the only Cybertronian to ever tell Sentinel Prime exactly what she thought of him and the council **and** get away with it."

Prowl's door wings shot upright in surprise.

"Dare I even ask sir?"

Optimus chuckled.

"She held a plasma rifle to his interface equipment and threatened to blow it off unless she and her mate were allowed to leave Iacon without any harassment. Sentinel was … eager to agree to her demands. Give Nightfire a chance Prowl, he may yet surprise us all."

Prowl pinched the bridge of his nose before looking back down at the notes he'd made on the data-pad. With Optimus supporting Nightfire's admittance into the Autobots, there was really nothing more he could find that meant they couldn't allow the young mech to enlist. He was about to open the office door to invite Nightfire back inside when the base alarm sounded.

"**THE** **DECEPTICONS ARE ATTACKING PRAXUS**!"

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire had been leaning against the wall opposite the door to Optimus's office when the alarm had sounded. Throwing caution to the wind he quickly joined the already enlisted Autobots, including his brothers, as they ran for the transports. Slipping inside one of the transports he listened as one of the higher ranking Autobots relayed what they knew about the attack. In all honesty, Nightfire just wanted to get out of the transport and onto the battlefield where he could prove himself to the Autobots.

Arriving at the Praxus base was easier said than done as the Decepticons fired on the transports. Nightfire saw two transports erupt into flames and crash as they were hit by anti-aircraft fire. The ramp on his transport lowered as it landed.

"Go! Go!"

Nightfire charged out of the transport and into what could only be described as hell. Cybertronians of all frame types were viciously fighting whilst Praxus burned. Shoving his emotions to one side Nightfire joined the melee, combat protocols and battle-computer activating almost instinctively. As he slashed, stabbed and blasted his way through the Decepticon ranks he noticed that many of them were AlleyBots, of all city types, proudly fighting under the Decepticon banner. Anger clouded his vision as he realised that these mechs and femmes were just as delusional as the cause they stood for. Roaring, he smashed into a Decepticon affiliated AlleyBot, the two of them rolling and grappling in the energon soaked ground. Nightfire pinned the other mech under his bigger frame, a knife at his neck cables.

"Why?! Why figh' fer dem! Can't yew see … is all dis death really wat yew want?!"

The Con underneath Nightfire sneered.

"You don' get it, Lord Megatron will lead us all to a better Cybertron … one free o' cowards like yew!"

The mech tried to fire his blaster into Nightfire's face, narrowly missing but still clipping the angry young mech's audio fin. Nightfire snarled and slit the mech's neck cables with a quick jerk of his knife. Rolling off the now greying corpse Nightfire looked around. Everywhere he looked there were Autobots and Decepticons fighting. Nightfire quickly dove back into the fray, soon his blades were dripping with energon. As he and a Praxian AlleyBot fought together to down a Decepticon a loud howl sounded out over the battlefield and the Decepticons started cheering. The two AlleyBots looked towards the howl and Nightfire's headspikes paled. Next to him the Praxian's ear-shaped finial's flattened against his helm in terror. Striding onto the battlefield, crushing any Autobot that got to close, was an enormous AlleyBot gestalt; a Praxian judging by its frame.

"Lycos … oh no …"

The Praxian was backing away, fear etched all over his face plates. The mech was literally shaking in his armour at the sight of the gestalt, door wings ramrod straight. Nightfire looked back towards the gestalt, it had almost free reign of the battle ground as Autobots scrambled to get clear of it. He growled, he wasn't going anywhere. What Nightfire did next was, quite frankly, borderline insane. Allowing his blades to extend to their full length he charged forwards until he was in the cleared area of the battlefield and roared.

"**OI**! Down 'ere fragger! Why don' yew try takin' meh on?!"

Lycos loosed another energon chilling howl and barrelled towards Nightfire. The young mech grinned, his whole body appearing to blur around the edges as his speed legacy activated. Time almost seemed to slow around him as he dodged the clumsy yet brutal blows of the gestalt, leaving behind deep lacerations. Using his speed, Nightfire targeted vital gears and energon lines in the gestalts legs, hoping to weaken the giant bot. The one problem he had though was that using his speed legacy on an almost empty tank meant that he could only skate at such high speeds for an incredibly limited amount of time. Nightfire stumbled as his legacy abruptly deactivated, causing him to trip. He screamed as Lycos grabbed him in one enormous hand and began to squeeze. Nightfire struggled desperately as his wings, chest and back were slowly being crushed. He glared as best he could at the surrounding Autobots.

"**Brin' 'im down**! Go fer da legs an' brin' dis glitch down … ugh … ah'm getting **crushed** 'ere!"

The Autobot's reacted surprisingly quickly and soon Lycos was falling under the hail of blaster fire, rockets and grenades. As the gestalt fell it split apart into its component bots who quickly fled back towards the Decepticon lines. Nightfire crashed into the ground with a pained grunt, rolling several feet before coming to a halt. He tried to get up but his equilibrium circuits were slagged to the pit and an excruciating pain had erupted in his chest. As his world faded to blackness he noticed that the Decepticons were in full retreat.

"Heh … dat showed 'em."

**Another chapter done :)**

**This story has more art! Check it out on my DeviantArt Profile: Jazzo01.**

**If anyone want's to submit their own AlleyBot, PM me with the designation, frame type (Kaonite, Polyhexian etc.), personality, weapons, faction and talent and I'll happily add them in.**

**Read and review please.**


	11. Chapter 10

Ch.10

Nightfire onlined once again in the medbay that was Ratchet's domain. The twins were sat together on a berth nearby, watching him with worried optics. They had been fighting on the other side of Praxus when the battle turned against the Decepticons after the defeat of Lycos and hadn't even known their little brother had been involved in the defeat of the gestalt until they were summoned to Ratchet's medbay. They both agreed that Nightfire temporarily blocking their bond whilst fighting was definitely not a good idea if he was going to get into these sorts of situations. Nightfire groaned in pain as he tried to push himself up off the berth and the twins reacted instantly, Sunstreaker pushing him back down onto the berth while Sideswipe called for Ratchet. The CMO very quickly showed up, Prowl in tow, and glared down at the recovering AlleyBot. Ratchet grabbed a wrench from his subspace and whacked Nightfire across the back of his helm with the tool.

"You **utter** dumb-aft! You couldn't **stay out** of my medbay for even **one** slagging day?! What was your **malfunction** taking on a **gestalt** by **yourself**?! You're lucky that …"

Nightfire tuned out Ratchet's long winded rant as he looked around the medbay at the other survivors from the Praxus battlefields. His spark sank when he saw how few Praxian's had appeared to have survived the slaughter and made it back to the main Autobot base in Iacon. He shook his head, what a waste of life. He may have been a gladiator, a killer with the energon of countless other Cybertronians staining his hands, but deep down he hated it all. The sounds, the smells, the sight of death; he hated all of it. He was rudely pulled from his musings by Prowl's quiet, yet authoritative, cough.

"Due to your actions yesterday this is just a formality really. However … welcome to the Autobots Nightfire."

Prowl held out the red Autobot badge to the younger mech who took it, running his fingers over the insignia.

"Your name has already been added to the duty roster and I want you to report to Wheeljack as soon as you are released from medbay. He needs someone who can easily design and adjust weapons so I've assigned you to help him when you are not on the front lines. That is all."

The door-winged mech turned and left without another word. Nightfire frowned slightly before shrugging and handing the insignia over to Ratchet.

"Well, where do you want this thing youngling?"

Nightfire tapped the centre of his left chest plate.

"'ere."

As Ratchet easily fixed the insignia into place, grumbling all the while about crazy frontliners and their lack of basic manners, Nightfire thought about what Prowl had said. He was about to ask Ratchet about this Wheeljack that the SIC had mentioned when a plaintive cry sounded from across the medbay. Ratchet sighed and set aside his tools.

"Ironwill's IV must have run out again."

Nightfire and the twins all looked confused.

"'ho's Ironwill?"

The medic gestured to a small cot-shaped berth on the other side of medbay as he mixed up some fine grade energon and minerals.

"He's the youngest of the six AlleyBot survivors from Praxus that made it to the Autobots. Too young to be away from his carrier really but he was found curled up next to her body by one of the recovery teams and brought here. He still needs sparkling energon but none of the other Praxians are willing to take him on so I've had him in here on an IV line to give him what he needs. He's purged everything else we've tried, I'm not sure why."

Nightfire frowned behind his mask at the medics words as he approached the sparkling's berth. Peering in, he studied the little Praxian. Large amethyst optics brimming with coolant stared back at him from a rust-orange and silver face, brown winglets twitching. A brief flash of anger shot through Nightfire and he glared over at the five other Praxian AlleyBot's who were all leaving medbay. How could they be so sparkless as to abandon such an innocent bitlet? As the sparklings ear final's drooped in distress Nightfire reached in and clumsily scooped the tiny mechling into his arms. Tucking the sparkling into the crook of his elbow, Nightfire reached down to a small panel on his side. Yanking it open as he sat himself down on an empty berth Nightfire fumbled for a second before pulling free a feeding line. Shifting Ironwill into his other arm he introduced the end of the line to the sparkling's mouth, hoping the little one recognised it. Ironwill quickly latched on and began to noisily gulp the highly refined mineral rich energon, happy chirrs occasionally making themselves heard as the sparkling fed.

Nightfire looked up when he heard Sideswipe take an image capture, the red twin smirking like the mechano-cat that caught the cyber-canary. Nightfire glowered but his brother was completely shameless. Even Ratchet and Sunstreaker looked like they were trying to hide grins.

"No' gonna make a good sire huh?"

Nightfire stuck out his tongue.

"Shaddup … it's just, ah'm not gonna make another bitlet go through wat ah did."

A small burp and a hiccup signified Ironwill having finished his feed. The little Praxian stared up at the much bigger AlleyBot holding him, optics wide. Suddenly he reached up and grabbed at Nightfires face, a wide smile splitting his face as he made a light cooing sound. Nightfire couldn't help but laugh and blow warm air onto Ironwill's chubby stomach plating, causing the little mech to squeal happily and wriggle in Nightfire's arms. Nightfire nuzzled the little mech.

"Ah thin' Glacie's gonna love yew."

He looked up at Ratchet.

"We'll take 'im. Ah'm not lettin' 'im grow up alone on da base."

Without even waiting for the medic to argue Nightfire stood up and headed towards Glacialnova's room, Ironwill comfortably curled up in his arms. As he slipped into his girlfriend's room the femme looked up at him. She raised an eyebrow at the little Praxian in Nightfire's arms.

"'e don' 'ave anyone swee' spar'. Ah couldn' leave 'im, 'e needs someone ta take care of 'im."

Glacialnova reached out for Ironwill, Nightfire willingly handing him over. A gentle smile was all Nightfire needed to know that his girlfriend was just as willing to care for the little orphan as he was. He turned back towards the door and Glacialnova looked up in confusion.

"Nightfire?"

Nightfire gripped the doorframe tightly, a dark look passing over his face.

"Ah'm gonna go 'ave **words** wit' da other Praxian's dat came in wit' Ironwill. Dey **ditched** 'im Glacie, ah wanna know why."

With that gruff proclamation Nightfire slipped out of the door.

_PAGE BREAKER_

The Rec Room was full of mechs and femmes all enjoying a cube or two of energon between shifts. At one table five Praxian AlleyBots were all laughing as they drunk their cubes. The group consisted of three mechs and two femmes. Interceptor looked at the rest of his team, Enforcer, Law and Order, and Patrol as they roughhoused and joked over their cubes. As the only other Praxian AlleyBot to have survived the Fall of Praxus was holed up in medbay where he couldn't bother them the gestalt team were all in good spirits. Interceptor was disturbed from his drinking when a blue and silver hand slammed onto the table. He looked up into the fiercely blazing visor of a large Kaonite mech. The rest of his team had quietened, in fact the entire room was silent as the Kaonite growled dangerously.

"**Why**?"

Interceptor looked confused, what had he done to incite the ire of this mech, he didn't even know him, although he did look somewhat familiar.

"'scuse me?"

The visor narrowed aggressively.

"Ah said **why**? Why did ya abandon Ironwill? 'e's just a bitlet."

Ah … that's what was wrong. Interceptor shrugged as he went back to his energon.

"He's no' our bitlet, why should he be our problem?"

No-one, least of all Interceptor, expected the thunderous punch that sent the Praxian flying from his seat and crashing onto the floor with an obliterated jaw strut. The rest of his team reacted with loud angry shouts as they made to stand. The loud whine of cannons warming up quickly halted them as the twins, who had been watching the situation unfold, now moved to back up their brother. Quickly sending a pulse of thanks along the bond Nightfire reached down and grabbed Interceptor by his neck cables and lifted the struggling Praxian up so he could look him in the optic. He snarled quietly.

"Yew **abandon** a sparklin' … the **only** one ta survive Praxus … cuz 'e's **not YOURS**?!"

The angry Kaonite's voice rose to an enraged roar as he harshly squeezed the neck cables in his grip, ignoring the Praxian trying to pry his fingers loose. He suddenly slammed Interceptor into the wall and his voice dropped to a malevolent whisper.

"Yew don' **look** at 'im, yew don' **speak** ta 'im, yew don' even** go near** 'im. 'e don' deserve ta 'ave ta deal wit' yew an' yer team an' **yew** can watch as mah femme an' meh raise 'im … an' we ain' even da same frame type. Bot's like yew are **worse** dan da **Con's**, at least dey'll put sparklin's out of der misery instead o' leavin' dem ta **starve**."

"**What** the slag is going on here?!"

Nightfire coldly let the Praxian drop as he was pulled away by two large, burly Autobots. Interceptor struggled up and tried to punch Nightfire only to be restrained by another Autobot. Both AlleyBots were dragged to stand in front of a seething Ironhide, whose arms were folded but the ever present cannons were clearly visible. The weapons specialist glowered, his blue optics blazing furiously.

"If you two have problems with each other then you sort it out during training, **not** in the fragging Rec Room! Brig, both of you, for two shifts … see if that cools your tempers."

Enforcer was about to protest when the angry Autobot turned on him.

"Do you want to join them?"

The small Praxian was quickly hauled back by another one of his team mates as they fled the Rec Room, all of them throwing dark looks at the unrepentant Kaonite. Nightfire threw a lazy grin at his brothers as he was escorted out of the Rec Room and towards the Brig.

"So worth it."

**So Nightfire's found himself with a son and a rival in one day, he's been busy :)**

**Submit Your Own AlleyBot is still open if you want to add your own character to the story.**

**Read and review please**


	12. Chapter 11

**Alright! Another chapter, sorry it's a little late but I'm revising for exams on top of writing this. FanFiction makes a great tool for procrastination. Anywho, on with the chapter.**

Ch.11

_(6 orns later)_

"Can't you lot just **get along**?! You'll be in here a few days this time … see if that sorts you out."

The energy bars activated, closing off the entrance to the cell. Nightfire shrugged and leant against the wall, his whole posture showing how little he cared that he was back in the Brig again. He watched Sideswipe come to the front of his own cell.

"What did ya do dis time?"

The young AlleyBot grinned, showing his denta.

"Got inta a figh' wit' Interceptor an' 'is team agin. Ah put all five in da medbay."

Sideswipe shook his head in amusement as Sunstreaker joined the conversation from the neighbouring cell.

"Wat da fragger's do dis time?"

Nightfire smacked his fist into his open palm as he glowered at the floor. The twins were silent for a moment, Nightfire looked unusually serious. The young mech had grown up rather quickly since adopting Ironwill and was fiercely protective of him. The perpetual fighting both on the battlefield and in the base, and the constant worrying about Glacialnova and their unsparked triplets didn't help Nightfire's attitude much either.

"Ironwill came ta meh in a righ' state. 'e said dat Interceptor and 'is team 'ad told 'im ta find somewhere else ta live on da base cuz as soon as Glacie sparks we wouldn' wan' 'im no more. Ah told dem ah wouldn' tolerate dem anywhere near Will … dey needed remindin' … **agin**."

Sunstreaker's optics narrowed while his twin growled darkly. Ever since that first incident in the Rec Room Interceptor and his team had constantly bullied Ironwill. No-one could figure out why the older Praxians harassed the orphan but none of Ironwill's new family tolerated the bullying, although the twins and Glacialnova were usually the ones who comforted Ironwill or protected him whilst Nightfire dealt with the gestalt team. Nightfire's retaliation was always the same: swift and vicious, and always landed him in trouble with Prowl, Ratchet and sometimes even Ironhide. Usually if Nightfire wasn't in the Brig, he was in medbay where he couldn't protect Ironwill. Working with Wheeljack had its perils after all, the engineer spent more time blowing things up than actually creating anything. It was times like this when Interceptor and his team would strike and so as soon as Nightfire was out of medbay, he was doing something that landed him back in the Brig. With Glacialnova's due date coming closer and closer, Nightfire tried to take as much responsibility for Ironwill as possible to make her life just that little bit easier. The big AlleyBot deemed the time spent in the Brig well worth protecting his son and so the cycle continued.

The three brothers all settled down near the entrances to their cells so they could talk. As it turned out, Sunstreaker was in the Brig for fighting as well, although he only knocked Huffer around a bit for scratching his paint the minibot wouldn't shut up until the yellow frontliner was spending his evening in the Brig, courtesy of an incredibly smug looking Cliffjumper. All three siblings agreed that the obnoxious red minibot was definitely their next target for pranking. Sideswipe on the other hand was in the Brig after he filled Ironhide's cannons with fluorescent pink paint and then sealed the ends. The weapons specialist had gone ballistic when the paint exploded out of his cannons and all over him. Sideswipe pointed out the image captures would make great blackmail material next time they got in trouble with the weapons specialist.

The trio's conversation took a more serious turn as they discussed the rumoured leak within the Autobot's and the unexpected visit of Sentinel Prime to the Iacon base. From what little the trio knew from the gossip chain and Glacialnova's griping, there was someone within Autobot Intel who was leaking high priority secrets. Several of their best mechs had been caught and were currently either dead or being held prisoner. Then there was Sentinel Prime's visit. Everyone agreed that it was unusual, Optimus was overseeing a mission in Polyhex so no-one could figure out why his predecessor had shown up at the Iacon base out of the blue like this. Nightfire was just about to give his opinion on the stuck-up old Prime when Ironwill came skidding into the Brig, a look of excited panic in his large amethyst optics.

"**Crea'er**! Carrier's sparkin' early! De triplets are comin!"

Nightfire's headspikes flushed with alarm. Glacialnova was sparking two orns early, the premature sparking could kill her and the triplets. The big mech body-slammed the wall of his cell.

"**Oi Mirage**! Lemme out, mah femme's sparkin'!"

The former noble almost tripped over his feet as he rushed to deactivate the cell bars. Nightfire practically ran the spy over as he skated out of the cell, scruffing his adopted son as he blasted past. By the time the twins had also been released by the unfortunate noble Nightfire was nowhere in sight, but he'd left a trail of flattened, groaning Autobots.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire skidded into the medbay, narrowly clipping his wing on the door. The loud screams and curses coming from Glacialnova's room added more urgency to his stride as he bolted in, only to have to dodge an angrily flung knife. Glacialnova glared at him as Ironwill wisely moved to the safest place in the room: behind the empty crib, leaving Nightfire to face the in labour femme's wrath.

"**Yew**! Ah'm gonna **kill** yew fer **doin' dis ta meh**, yew ain' never **comin' near meh agin**!"

Nightfire took the blistering torrent of verbal abuse as he offered his hand to his raging girlfriend. She took in in a grip of steel and almost crushed it as another contraction wracked her frame. Nightfire let out an unmechly yip as the gears in his hand were ground together.

"**Dat's it**! Ah'm gonna shoot yer interface equipment off when dis is over. Yew 'ear meh! Yer a dead mech Nightfire! Ah'm gonna …"

Nightfire couldn't do more than let his hand be crushed and try and placate Glacialnova as she screamed, pushed and cursed. He glared at his brothers who were warily watching from the safety of the door. Ratchet looked up from where he was checking the progress of the first triplet.

"Alright Glacialnova, you're doing fine. On the next contraction I want you to push okay? This little one's almost ready."

Nightfire grinned.

"See Glacie, yer doin' fine … **ack**!"

Glacialnova had let go of Nightfire's crushed hand and instead latched onto the mech's neck cables with a ferocious snarl.

"Glacie … **air**! Ah need it mah vent's! **Ack**! Lemme go … please?!"

Nightfire's wings flared and flapped in alarm and his headspikes flashed through several shades of blue as his girlfriend continued to try and choke him. The mech rubbed his damaged neck cables as his vents worked overtime, letting a pathetic whine loose from his vocaliser in an attempt to redirect his girlfriend's ire.

"Yew love meh really Glacie?"

Glacialnova glowered angrily at Nightfire as another contraction rippled through her.

"Oh **slag** no … yew ain' touchin' meh **agin** Nightfire! Yew are rechargin' in da **Rec Room** after dis, got it?!"

Nightfire's wings drooped.

"Yeah swee' spar'."

Ratchet ignored the struggling mech as he prepared to catch the first triplet. Glacialnova roared in pain as she gave an enormous push and the first cries of the little Kaonite soon graced the medbay. The blue, silver and white mechling was quickly placed in a cot. Ironwill peeked into the crib to get a look at his new sibling.

"Crea'er, 'e don' 'ave audios!"

Nightfire and Ratchet both frowned and moved over to the crib, leaving a quickly commandeered FirstAid to monitor the tired Glacialnova. Ratchet quickly scanned the newsparked mechling, whose lack of audio fins was glaringly obvious now that he was in the crib.

"I don't understand it … he doesn't appear to have any auditory components or auditory programming at all … he's deaf."

Nightfire threw a worried glance at his son as he ran a hand over the small helm.

"Will 'e be alrigh' though, withou' audio's ah mean? Wat abou' 'is telepathy?"

Ratchet hummed as he finished scanning the mechling.

"Hmmm? Yes he'll be fine, he may never learn to speak though as he can't hear or process sounds. As far as telepathy goes, I'm unsure … he may learn to use it to communicate but it is highly likely that he's 'deaf' in that aspect as well."

Nightfire shrugged as he continued to reassure the sparkling.

"Ah don' care, 'e's mah mechlin', we'll find some way ta 'elp 'im."

Nightfire made his way back to Glacialnova, intent on helping her through the last two births before breaking the news about the eldest triplet. The femme snarled acidly as she transferred her grip back to Nightfire's mangled hand.

The second triplet, this one purple, grey and blue, soon made its noisy entrance into the world as Glacialnova pushed and cursed. Ratchet and FirstAid were now also becoming the target of the slim femme's rage as Ratchet had to dodge a vicious kick from the stressed out, exhausted femme. FirstAid was knocked unconscious by a wildly thrown punch that managed to smash full on into the Protectobot's helm. Nightfire looked at the mechling that was quickly handed to him. The sparkling was small, worryingly so, and where there should have been wings between his shoulder blades, there were two useless stumps. Nightfire quickly got Ratchet's attention and showed the CMO what had him so worked up. Ratchet cursed, quietly so as to not get Glacialnova's attention.

"I'll get Wheeljack to make some sensory panels for him, they won't be flight capable but my scans indicate that this little mechling wouldn't have been able to fly even if he wanted to."

Nightfire held his son tight to him, his spark clenched with worry. A flightless Kaonite?! There was no such thing … until now. At least if this little one had sensory panels he'd have access to the same data that other Kaonites had using their wings. He placed the tiny sparkling in the crib next to his considerably bigger brother whilst Ratchet returned to Glacialnova's side.

As the medic tried to check the process of the final triplet Glacialnova's wildly swinging tail caught Ratchet full on in the chest plates, sending the CMO crashing through the wall. As the dazed medic was helped up by the twins Glacialnova let loose an audio splitting scream and she pushed hard. Before the medic or Nightfire could react the final sparkling had graced Cybertron with its presence and was on a collision course with the floor. Nightfire dove for his sparkling but the little grey, silver and blue body, slick with birth fluids, slipped through his fingers.

**Crack**!

The sparkling's head hit the floor, the rest of its body following, as shocked silence reigned over the medbay.

**Sorry but I'm cutting it short on this cliffhanger I'm afraid. I should have the next chapter up in a few days.**

**Submit your Own AlleyBot is still available but only until I upload the next chapter.**

**Read and review please.**


	13. Chapter 12

**Warning: Character death**

Ch.12

Nightfire felt his spark stop in its casing and Glacialnova cried out when the sparkling hit the floor and fell still. Ratchet was over in a flash, quickly picking up the sparkling and running numerous scans whilst the anxious new creators watched and hoped. There was a sickeningly large dent just in front of the sparklings right audio fin where it had first made contact with the floor. The silence stretched out as Ratchet worked; hoping, almost praying, that the sparkling had survived. Just when it seemed like they had lost the youngest triplet, it kicked slightly before a keening cry broke the now relieved silence. As Ratchet placed the mechling into the crib with its siblings Nightfire helped Glacialnova up so she could see their sons for the first time. The two adult AlleyBots were silent as they looked at their children, silently communicating so that Glacialnova could be brought up to speed. Both parents frowned as they looked at the youngest, in addition to the still visible dent in his helm, the surprisingly large mechling was missing his tail. Of all the limbs to be missing, the youngest triplet had to be missing one of the few that were irreplaceable. AlleyBot tails were not just easily replaced additions, they were rather complex appendages; in essence they were a fifth limb, sixth for those AlleyBot's that also had wings. Whilst there had been Kaonites that had left perfectly happy, relatively speaking, lives without tails, the lack of the limb would mean that the mechling's coordination and balance would be severely handicapped, both on the ground and in the air. In short, he was going to be clumsy, very clumsy. Whether or not his helm injury would lead to a glitch was yet to be seen.

"Aww, 'e looks jus' like 'is sire."

Nightfire smirked at Glacialnova, it was true, the youngest triplet did share a lot of his looks even at this early stage. They even shared the same facial stripe, even if Nightfire's was now hidden by his mask.

"Let's jus' 'ope 'e ain't gonna be as glitched as 'is sire."

That earned the young sire a quick smack to the back of his helm. He shook it off with ease as he looked back at his sparklings. The proud parent didn't care in the slightest about his sons being born different, he was just happy that they and their carrier were all safe. Ironwill was very quickly picked up so he could see his little brothers properly as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker also joined them. It was Sideswipe though who asked the question on everyone's processors.

"So … watcha gonna call 'em?"

Nightfire and Glacialnova were struck dumb for a few seconds, they had still been discussing, read arguing like immature sparklings over, names. As Nightfire looked back down at the now sleeping triplets, he noticed nine bright blue markings surrounding the oldest's optics. He grinned, he knew what to call this little one.

"Dis one's Niner. Yer turn Glacie."

Glacialnova looked over the remaining two triplets before running her hand along the wing of the youngest.

"Nexus … dis one's Nexus. Sunny, Sides, yew two wanna name da last one?"

The twins blinked in surprise but looked into the crib and at the smallest triplet, noting his colours and looks before looking at the two adult AlleyBots.

"Well, since 'e looks so much like 'is carrier, dis liddle un's gonna be … Nova."

Glacialnova's headspikes 'blushed' at the compliment as she scooped up the triplets. The twins were right, Nova did look a lot like a mech version of her. Nightfire wrapped one arm around her shoulders whilst he held Ironwill in the other.

"Ironwill, Niner, Nova and Nexus … our liddle mechs."

_PAGE BREAKER_

_(A few days later)_

The happy family were comfortably settled in their quarters, various Autobots had been stopping by to congratulate them on the triplets whilst Nightfire and Glacialnova were still on leave. Even Prowl and Jazz had sent their congratulations. Nightfire grinned as he and Glacialnova watched their four mechlings play. Although the big mech would never admit it, he was glad that the triplets had been sparked early, Glacialnova's late carry stage mood swings had been getting to him. He wrapped an arm around her waist as Nova was bowled over by his much bigger siblings, the picture of youthful innocence. However, there were always the few that sought to cause trouble even on this happiest of occasions.

"Well, well, well … yew two dealin' wit' three more malfunctionin' rejects huh? Ah'm surprised they're still online, ah can correct that though … **gack**!"

Both Glacialnova and Nightfire had attacked Interceptor at the same time, blades at the Praxian's neck cables, their faces expressing their rage.

"Yew even **think** of tryin' it Interceptor … ah'll **kill** yew. Yew know wat dat'll do to yer team, so don' test meh."

The Praxian's ear finials and door wings shot up in alarm at Nightfire's coldly delivered threat. As the gestalt leader, his death would drive his teammates to insanity and both Kaonites knew this. They not only knew this, but Interceptor was sure that they would willingly send the rest of his team spiralling into insanity if it meant his demise. The Praxian edged towards the door, warily watching both creators as they glared at him. The two adult Kaonites didn't relax until the unwelcome Praxian had fled. Nightfire's wings relaxed as Nexus cried out for his feed, Nova soon following. The two AlleyBots grinned as they each picked up a noisy sparkling, settling down to feed them. Niner silently waited his turn as he played with Ironwill. The young Praxian was overjoyed at being a big brother and spent as much time as possible with his siblings. He playfully cuffed Niner's helm and yipped when the little Kaonite bit down on his ear finial.

**BOOM**!

Nightfire and Glacialnova were both on their feet as the explosion rattled the base. Having been subject to several Wheeljack style explosions Nightfire knew something was wrong, this explosion had come from the opposite side of the base to Wheeljack's lab, in fact it sounded dangerously close to the barracks. Nightfire's battle armour slid into place as he activated his comlink.

{Sides, wat da frag's goin' on?! Wat was dat explosion jus' now?}

After a few tense moments in which the triplets were moved to safety in their sires sparkling hold, their older brother clinging tight to Nightfire's back, Sideswipe replied.

{It's da Con's, dey've moun'ed a full scale – take **dat** yew slagger- assault –eat plasma **glitches** – it's **crazy** out 'ere Night', get yer family outta dere, me and Sunny – **come get some yew retro-rat fraggin' son of a pylon** – will meet y'all outside da barrack rear entrance –**SEEKERS INBOUND!**\- gotta go}

Nightfire wasted no time in charged out of his room, Glacialnova hot on his heels. The two AlleyBot's quickly made their way to the rear entrance of the barracks; cannons humming in their mounts, Nightfire's fingers tight on the bowstring of his energon bow. Glacialnova slipped around her larger partner and deftly hacked the lock on the door, opening it. True to his promise, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were both waiting outside.

"Let's go, ol' Megsie's shown up, we're fallin' back 'til reinforcements get 'ere."

The four adult Autobots quickly made their way towards where the rest of the Iacon base garrison were fighting, killing any Decepticon stupid enough to get in their way. They almost made it … but almost never caught the turbo-fox and it sure never won the battle.

Nightfire was sent flying as a null ray blast smashed into his side, he twisted awkwardly to avoid landing on Ironwill. He snarled as he was surrounded by the Command Trine and flared his wings threateningly, wrapping on arm around his dented hold so as to protect the triplets whilst levelling the cannon on his free arm at Starscream. Ironwill cowered down by his father's left foot, terrified sobs emitting from his vocaliser. Nearby on the battlefield the twins were dealing with the Cone Heads. Nightfire desperately looked around for Glacialnova and then his spark stopped. Pinning down his panicked girlfriend with one clawed foot was the Slagmaker himself: Megatron. Crying out, Nightfire frantically tried to break past the Seekers to get to Glacialnova, but the trine managed to force him backwards as they targeted Ironwill and Nightfire's hold, putting the big mech on the defensive. A quick surge of reassurance across the bond got Nightfire's attention as he violently headbutted Starscream, the vain jet screeching in outrage. The twins had successfully driven off the Cone Heads and were now on their way to help the two AlleyBots.

['elp Glacie, ah can 'andle Screamer-dreamer, Thunder-blunder an' Skyslag.]

The twins nodded in unison and quickly changed course, intent on helping Glacialnova hold off Megatron until help could arrive.

But they were too late.

Time seemed to slow for Nightfire and the twins as Megatron fired his fusion cannon … right through Glacialnova's spark-chamber. She didn't even have the time to cry out before her spark was extinguished. Nightfire froze in shock as the tyrant warlord kicked Glacialnova's still smoking corpse away.

An attack from Skywarp knocked Nightfire back and he lost sight of Glacialnova. As he turned again to where she had fallen, a look of anguished shock passed across his face. Sideswipe had already reached her body, desperately tried to wake her. As his twin skidded over he shook his head and Nightfire felt his world come crashing down. She was gone ... Megatron had just taken one of the few things in his life that still made it worth living. A single tear escaped one of his useless optics. A scream shattered the air and Nightfire was confused until he realised it was actually him screaming for Glacialnova.

"**GLACIE** … **NO**!"

The distraught AlleyBot managed to bodyslam Thundercracker out of the way and stumble over to the twins and Glacialnova. Ironwill nuzzled his adopted carrier in a vain attempt to wake her as Nightfire let the triplets out of his hold. But even their terrified cries could not rouse her now greying form. Nightfire scooped up his offline girlfriend and held her tight to his own frame, her energon staining his chest plates as he sobbed.

"Don' do dis ta meh Glacie … okay? Lissen ah love yew an' ah need yew ta come back … please swee' spar' come back ta meh!"

Nightfire's pleas went unheard by Glacialnova as her dead optics stared into nothingness, her face still contorted in pain. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker could do little more than place their hands on their brother's shoulders, offering silent comfort to the crying AlleyBot as tears slid unbidden down their own faces. Harsh laughter suddenly echoed across the battlefield, gaining the trio's attention.

"The infamous Nightfire, the terror of Kaon's Pit, brought to his knees by such a soft sparked weakness. It's almost enough to make me purge. I must admit … I am very disappointed."

Nightfire snapped. A burning had begun deep in his spark and this now turned into a raging inferno. So absorbed was he by his rage and this inferno that had spread from his spark to the entirety of his frame that he never noticed that his hands had begun to glow. Bright blue energy swirled and snapped dangerously around his hands, causing the Command Trine to back away warily. Megatron however stood his ground, more amused than anything else, and watched as the younger bot worked himself up into an even bigger rage.

-**You cannot bring her back with his demise little spark**-

Nightfire froze as a previously unfelt presence made itself known. As it did, time seemed to just freeze. Where was it coming from? That voice … it sounded so old and sad and seemed to resonate through the air.

-**Do not blame yourself little spark, she is in a better place now**-

Nightfire clenched his fists and ground his denta.

: _Says yew! 'ho are yew?! Show yerself!_ :

The presence chuckled.

-**I am known by many names little spark: Lifegiver, Light-bringer, Creator … but you, you may call me Primus**-

The young AlleyBot snorted harshly.

: _Yeah, an' ah'm da new Prime, why don'chu try pullin da other one?_ :

The presence was silent but Nightfire could almost feel its amusement. Oh for the love of …

: _Yew are fraggin' jokin' … yew gotta be, ah can't be a Prime! Ah jus' can't!_ :

-**And why is that little spark?**-

: _Stop callin' meh dat, ah ain' liddle. Ah've done thin's … ah've got energon all over mah hands. Ah can't be a Prime._ :

Primus vented deeply.

-**Your carrier said almost the exact same thing to me young one when I chose her to be Prime. Yet she managed the burden quite well, although her time as Prime was prematurely cut short. I'm sure you will succeed where she did not.**-

Nightfire shook his head desperately.

: _Can't yew choose anotha bot? Outta all da AlleyBot's on Cybertron, why anotha Kaonite … why meh?_ :

-**Out of all my AlleyBot children, the Kaonites are the most dangerous … the most suited for times of war, even if they are somewhat arrogant. These past vorns, the AlleyBots have needed the more aggressive, more independent hands of a Kaonite to guide them, even if they themselves have not realised it. If it were peace time I would have chosen a Polyhexian, illness an Iaconian and so on. In particular, you display extraordinary amounts of aggression and pride, tempered by your independence and street smarts as well as your fierce protectiveness for those you love. Nightfire … ****you**** are who the AlleyBots need now**-

Nightfire's headspikes flushed in irritation as he shook his head.

: _Yeah righ', dey need meh? Dey exiled meh! Abandoned meh all because ah didn' follow dere rules. Why should ah lead dem huh?! _:

Primus was beginning to lose his infinite patience.

-**Nightfire, this is not up for discussion! Despite your grievances the AlleyBot's need you … if you don't, you and your sparklings may end up being the last AlleyBot's on Cybertron!**-

Nightfire paused, shaken by the god's blunt proclamation. The last of their kind?! As badly as the young Kaonite despised the AlleyBots his conscience, as skewed as it was, wouldn't allow him to condemn them to extinction. Yet, he wasn't exactly about to just give in to the deity's wishes.

: _An' wat's innit fer meh exactly? Ah sure ain't 'xactly doin' dis outta charity._ :

That, apparently, was not the smartest thing to say. One does not sass an all-powerful god and expect to get away with it.

-**Charity?! I do not just select anyone to be Prime Nightfire just to inconvenience them! To be called upon to be Prime is a great honour … one I expected would mean a great deal to a warrior like you. I do not play games young one, I know you are testing me.**-

Nightfire was both terrified and impressed by this thundering tirade. That Primus actually lost his considerable patience truly scared the young mech. Yet at the same time, no-one had ever called his bluff before. He had to admit that the powerful god was no pushover and definitely deserved his respect. Nightfire vented, no sense in dragging this out any further.

: _Fine Primus … ah accept da responsibility yew wan' meh ta carry. Ah accept da role of Prime._ :

Primus felt irritatingly smug and yet overjoyed at the same time. A brief glow filled Nightfire's vision and when it subsided Primus was actually standing before him. In the god's hands was what appeared to be a delicate metal and crystal diamond, white light flickering deep within.

-**Behold … the Matrix of Balance. It is yours now … until such time as you offline, or a new Prime is chosen.**-

Primus tapped Nightfire's chest plates and they opened, surprising the young AlleyBot. The Matrix drifted forwards and settled just below Nightfire spark, his chest plates closing as soon as the relic was in place. A shock passed through Nightfire and he dropped to one knee, throwing a hand out to support himself as his body blazed with pain.

: _Gah! Yew never said dis would 'urt!_ :

-**My apologies young one, it will pass soon.**-

True enough, the pain quickly subsided. Nightfire took a shuddering vent, he felt bigger, stronger. He looked down at his arm and noticed the limb had changed. His once lean arm had been black with blue highlights whilst his hand had been blue and silver. Now his arm was brawnier and sporting denser armour. It was a deep blue in colour while his now bigger hand was black with silver fingers. Even his cannon appeared to have been altered. He looked up at Primus who just smiled.

-**Arise Nightfire Prime. Arise and lead the AlleyBot's out of this war.**-

**I know, I know, I'm a horrible example of a human being killing off Glacialnova ... but I couldn't get the story to work in my head otherwise. Plus it gives Nightfire the perfect excuse to absolutely despise Megatron, in addition to the obvious.**

**I'm not sure if Primus came out as he would if he ever made an appearance in canon ... oh well.**

**Sorry guys but Submit Your own AlleyBot is now closed, I will not be taking any new characters now.**

**Read and review please.**

**Thanks to HeartsGuardianSol and wolfimus prime for reviewing. It's guy's like you two that inspire me to keep writing ^_^ **


	14. Chapter 13

**I'm so so sorry this is late! I've been struggling for inspiration with this particular chapter and have only just managed to finish it off. I hope you all enjoy it. As always, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed and faved.**

* * *

Ch.13

For Sideswipe and Sunstreaker it was over in a flash. Literally. One moment they are watching their distraught little brother prepare to take on Megatron of all Decepticons by himself. The next there was a blinding flash of light and a deep planet-shaking voice rumbled through the air.

-**Arise Nightfire Prime. Arise and lead the AlleyBot's out of this war.**-

When the light faded they saw that Nightfire had fallen to one knee, head bowed. Whatever that light was it had changed him. The once broad-shouldered, a bit on the tall side AlleyBot was now a giant, his armour much stronger and more aerodynamic. His once black and dark blue paintjob with silver highlights had changed as well. The young AlleyBot was now a deep ocean blue and silver with black highlights along the edges of his armour. Even his weapons had changed: the once small cannons that had graced his forearms were larger and more streamlined while his swords had lengthened and had Cybertronian symbols engraved along their edges. In addition to these changes Nightfire appeared to have acquired two small machine guns, one mounted on each shoulder. But what had changed the most was Nightfire's helm and face. His headspikes had become more angular and now had two points at each end; his once blue helm fins had become slightly larger and had turned black, standing out starkly against his now silver helm. His face mask had fallen off when he'd changed and so the young AlleyBot's scarred face was now visible. His jaw was slightly stronger and more angular whilst his facial stripe had thickened slightly and become more obvious. But most noticeably … his optics, whilst still blind, had turned a cold white.

Nightfire stood, taking a few seconds to adjust to his new height, and reached down to pick up his face mask, jamming it back on his face. It was a bit of a tight fit and the young AlleyBot knew he was going to have to hunt down Jackhammer to get the damn thing altered. Face mask now fixed in place, he glared at the stunned Megatron, deploying both of his swords.

"**Megatron** … yer gonna pay fer wat yew 'ave done 'ere."

Even his voice had changed. Nightfire's rough, thick Kaon drawl had been beginning to fade as he learnt to ditch the gutter speak and had been surrounded by various other accents from all over Cybertron. Now it had returned full force. His voice while still young had also deepened slightly, he sounded tired … like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The blue energy continued to flicker around Nightfire's hands as he skated towards Megatron, slowly at first but as he got closer his pace picked up. The unexpected movement shocked the Decepticon warlord into action and he opened fire on the newly ascended Prime, only for the young mech to dodge the blasts with agonising ease. Before Megatron had time to react Nightfire was on him with a roar, bringing his fist across the Decepticon leaders face in a vicious right hook, his sword slashing into the Decepticons helm armour. Snarling, Megatron retaliated angrily and the two former gladiators began to trade blows, snarling and lashing out at each other like a pair of cyber-wolves. Energon flew through the air as they attacked and parried, coating their bodies with painful looking injuries.

"Is … is that rust?!"

Starscream's fearful comment drew the attention of even the brawling duo. They all looked to where Starscream was pointing, a panicked look in his crimson optics. There, where Nightfire's glowing fist had struck Megatron in the face, was a large patch of rust. As they continued to stare, more rust patches appeared wherever Nightfire had successfully managed to land a blow on Megatron. The injuries, once fresh, looked like they had just spent a week without medical treatment. It was almost as if time had been accelerated around the wounds. As the Decepticon backed away Nightfire stared down at his glowing hands. Energy flared and flicked along his palms and around his fingers, doing him no harm whatsoever.

"Whoa … dat's some jumped up slag righ' dere."

Nightfire looked back up at Megatron, an insane grin splitting his face. With a yell he charged the Decepticon, punching him every chance he got. It looked like the tide was turning for the Decepticons as their leader was viciously battered. Until Megatron, struggling under the onslaught, grabbed the nearest Cybertronian and shoved him at the crazy young Prime just as Nightfire launched a powerful uppercut. He tried to stop, he really did, but everything happened too fast. On second the terrified 'copter Con was watching the glowing fist powering towards him, a shocked look on the AlleyBot's face; the next, his head was almost completely removed from his shoulders and rust had started to form on the destroyed struts and gears. The Con landed with a crunch on the ground, his red optics flickering weakly. He tried to look for his older brother with failing optics.

"Bla … Blackout? It's … it's so … it's so dark? Where are you? Blackout …"

The dying Con's optics flared once more before the light in them extinguished.

"**Cyclonus**!"

Nightfire stared in horror at the Decepticon he had just accidentally killed. He looked over to the Con who had just cried out, another helicopter.

"Ah … ah didn' … it was a acciden' … ah'm …"

The Decepticon glared murderously at Nightfire, who just stood there frozen, coolant leaking from the corners of his optics. He flexed his claws.

"I'm gonna **kill** …"

"That's **enough** Blackout! We're pulling back. Besides, we've got what we came for."

The Decepticon stared at Megatron whilst Sideswipe and Sunstreaker began cheering. Megatron simply pointed to where several troop carriers full of Autobots were landing, the fresh troops running into the fray with Optimus Prime at their head. Without even waiting for further orders Blackout took off and transformed, fleeing the battlefield with the Command Trine not far behind him. Megatron glowered at Nightfire and his brothers.

"This isn't over little Prime. You will one day cower before the might of Megatron."

With that the Decepticon warlord transformed and left the battlefield. Nightfire, although still in shock, staggered slightly as he came down off his combat high. He collapsed before his brothers and sons could reach him. Only Sunstreaker was able to catch Nightfire's last quietly spoken words before he passed out.

"Ah didn' wan' dis ta 'appen…"

_PAGE BREAKER_

_(Several orns later)_

He'd changed, that much Sunstreaker was certain of as the golden mech stalked towards the monitor room to relieve his younger brother. Ever since that terrible, fateful day in Iacon, his little brother had significantly changed. Gone was the snippy, fight happy young mech that they had all known and loved to tease. In his place was an angry, dangerous individual who was obsessed with taking down every last Decepticon. He also obsessed over finding who had betrayed the Iacon base, leading to Glacialnova's death, and **dealing** with them. It had gotten to the point that Nightfire was feared by both sides, Decepticons got out of his way on the battlefield, save for a certain homicidal helicopter, and Autobots only approached him if they absolutely had to. Although it was questionable sometimes all the mechs in Special Operations had to do to get captured Decepticons to talk was to threaten them with Nightfire, they usually cracked after that.

Nightfire was also spending a lot more time in the Brig as he got into more fights. In the Rec Room, in the hallways, even in the command centre itself. Sunstreaker had once been the sibling that the Autobots avoided, but he preferred things that way. To see his younger brother now the one everyone feared and hated, it angered Sunstreaker right to the very core of his spark.

And don't even get him started about this whole Prime thing, Sunstreaker had been the one to spend a week trying to get his brother to calm down and realise that what had happened that day with the two helicopter siblings had been a tragic accident, that Megatron was the one in the wrong, not Nightfire. After a plethora of tests and several of the Autobot scientists perusing the Archives and talking to every AlleyBot they came across, it was discovered that Nightfire's terrifying new ability was a Prime legacy. Perceptor had managed to find a single data-pad on the subject. It explained that when the Matrix of Balance was bestowed upon an AlleyBot it activated a legacy, one that only a Prime would be strong enough to handle, at the cost of the legacy they had been sparked with. Nightfire was still fast, faster than most bots, but he would never be able to keep up with speedsters again. His new legacy appeared to be similar to an ability that Vector Prime had once had when he was Prime several vorns ago. These legacies were incredibly dangerous and according to the data-pad, no Prime had ever fully mastered their second legacy, most were either offlined before they could fully master it or were killed by the very ability they were trying to utilise. It just had to be Nightfire's luck that he got the legacy that had killed most of the very Primes who had attempted to master it. This new problem only worsened Nightfire's attitude and he withdrew even further into himself, refusing to have anything to do with his new legacy and spiralling downwards into anger and depression.

This dark mask only ever dropped behind the closed door of the room the three brothers shared and even then, Sunstreaker could see how haunted and exhausted his brother was, the pain hidden behind the young mech's visor and in those blind white optics. Only the triplets and Ironwill could get him to smile now; even Sideswipe's pranks only brought a faint, almost invisible smirk to Nightfire's face. And what worried both Sunstreaker and his twin the most was that the sparklings were starting to show signs that seeing their carrier, or in Ironwill's case adopted carrier, offline was starting to affect them. Especially Nexus, whose nightmares shocked everyone out of recharge that first night when the sparkling had woken up screaming and crying. Now the young mechling wouldn't recharge without his sire or one of the twins sitting with him until he fell into recharge, and even then he still had nightmares that woke everyone but Niner up.

Sunstreaker rubbed his forehead tiredly as he turned the corner onto the monitor room corridor before freezing. He blinked once, twice, and then again to ensure his optics were not glitching. Why were what appeared to be half the base all trying to press their audios to the monitor room door?

"Wat da frag y'all doin' outside da monitor room?!"

Bluestreak looked up and quickly shushed the golden frontliner, gesturing at the door. Confused and curious, Sunstreaker shoved several Autobot's aside to press his own audio to the door.

"_… Good ta conquer evil, lies ta figh' da truth. Are any of us only sain's or sinna's or issit always Bot versus Con …_"

Sunstreaker's ice cold spark lifted at the rough voice echoing out of the monitor room. Nightfire hadn't sung since that day, maybe this was a sign. A sign that he was finally healing.

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**Read and review please**


	15. Chapter 14

**I'm sorry this has been delayed but I've just been struggling so much with writing recently that I haven't had anything worth putting on the typed page. However, I'm back now and so here's a new chapter with my apologies. Please remember that I'm still taking any rule and one shot suggestions for the Guide.**

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Ch.14

Nightfire stalked down the corridor towards Medbay, bots scattering left and right to get out of his way for fear of inciting his wrath. His armour and hands were once again scorched and torn by shrapnel courtesy of Wheeljack's latest mishap and particularly large piece was lodged in the joint of one of his shoulders, hence his storming towards Ratchet's domain. He didn't care for the terrified glances some of the Autobots stole as he passed, if being a gladiator had done anything for him it had made him used to being feared. He thumped the control panel next to the Medbay doors and entered, heading towards the berth at the far end of the room. Ratchet looked up as Nightfire slumped down on the berth, running his uninjured hand over his mask.

"What happened this time?"

Nightfire snorted harshly, gesturing to his injured shoulder and useless arm.

"Wat d'ya thin' 'appened?! Jack blew us up agin, took ou' da 'hole lab dis time. Ah had a frag grenade ah was workin' on an' now ah gotta start da entire thin' all over agin!"

Ratchet shook his head with barely concealed irritation as he set to work cleaning all the soot away from the injury in Nightfire's shoulder. He had to admit, Wheeljack's explosions were becoming all too common an occurrence and it was starting to wear on his last nerve. He barely withheld a groan as the true extent of the injury was revealed as he finished cleaning it. The obscenely jagged chunk of shrapnel had not only managed to find the only gap between the plates of Nightfire's shoulder armour, it had gotten itself wedged deep into the joint that allowed Nightfire's arm to move and tangled up in several vital energon and coolant lines. It was painfully obvious that Nightfire hadn't bothered seeing a medic in orns, the rust build-up and poor state of the protoform underneath his armour was obviously not a recent development and looked to be causing Nightfire no small measure of discomfort. Frustrated with Nightfire's blasé attitude with regards to his welfare, Ratchet smashed a wrench into the taller mech's sensitive audio fin. Nightfire pitched to one side, hand rushing to the impact point.

"Gah! Oi Ratch', wat was **dat** fer?! Wat did ah do dis time huh?"

Before the crotchety medic could deliver one of his trademark acidic responses, the Medbay doors slammed open with a crash. Both medic and patient looked up as two burly Autobots entered, dragging a struggling energon covered mech between them. Prowl and Ironhide followed the three mechs in, the SIC and Weapons Specialist walking straight over to Ratchet. Ironhide folded his arms in his usual stance as he addressed the CMO, ignoring the commotion going on behind him as the mech was wrestled onto one of the berths designed for treating Con patients in between interrogations.

"We need you to patch our Con friend here up. Don't want him leaking out before he can tell us what he knows."

Nightfire, bored out of his processor, looked over to the other mech on the nearby berth and stiffened momentarily. He hoped to Primus that the mech wasn't who he thought it was, it could be disastrous for him and his boys. The last thing they needed was for the murkier parts of his past to be dug up from their long buried grave. The other mech groaned and turned, his purple optics widening with delight at the sight of the young AlleyBot mech.

"Nightfire?! Oh thank Primus! Listen, I'll cut you a good deal on some plasma grenades I recently came by if you get me outta this mess. What d'ya think huh? Help an old partner out?"

The silence that followed could have been cut by an energon blade it was that thick. Nightfire could feel the numerous gazes burning into his armour even as he glowered at the other mech.

"Ah told yew las' time Swindle, ah won' 'elp yew agin. Yew **left** meh ta get caugh' by da enforcers wit' dem explosives afta dat deal wen' bust! **An'** yew took more dan wat we agreed on fer our cuts! Ah was in da Stockades fer **two orns** 'cause of **yew**! So if yew thin' ah'm gonna '**elp** yew afta wat yew pulled den thin' **agin**!"

Nightfire relaxed slightly as he finished shouting at Swindle. He held up a scarred hand, interrupting Prowl just as the livid SIC was about to question him.

"Yeah, ah said ah'd been done fer 'avin' illegal explosives. Ah jus' didn' say why ah 'ad 'em in da firs' place. Gladia'ors don' ge' paid all dat well, ah did odd jobs fer Swindle 'ere an' Lockdown seein' as dey paid pretty well. Ah stopped afta Swindle le' meh ge' caugh' ta save 'is own platin'. Da cred's weren' good 'nough fer dat. Side's, ah 'ad other thin's ta worry 'bout."

He flinched when Ratchet prodded a particularly sensitive cluster of wires as he extracted the shrapnel from his shoulder. Ironhide glared at the younger mech, cannons whirling ominously in their brackets.

"You mean to tell me you worked for the black market?! That you provided explosives and other weapons to mercenaries and murderers!"

Nightfire shrugged his good shoulder. Work was work when he hadn't been fighting other mechs and femmes in the Arena.

"Hey, ah jus' go' wat was wan'ed an' go' it ta de deal poin'. Ah didn' care 'ho were doin' da buyin' as lon' as it didn' stop meh from bein' paid."

It was true too, Nightfire had honestly never cared about who he was supplying the various 'merchandise' to as long as he was paid well for it. He'd steal whatever Swindle told him the customer was after and get it safely to the deal point. After that he got his credits and that was it as far as he was concerned. Working with Swindle was better than working with Lockdown though, the mercenary only contacted him about jobs that were bound to get him seriously injured. However they still paid well and in a world where you didn't throw away good credits simply because the job was hard, Nightfire hadn't been able to afford to say no. Killing other mechs, regardless of what they'd done to have a bounty put on them, hadn't bothered him anyway. He'd had his third of the rent and bills to pay in addition to getting enough medical supplies and energon for the next few days. He and the Twins had tried to live as legitimately as possible, mainly to keep off the enforcer's radar, but sometimes those credits had to come from less than legitimate sources. Not that he'd ever cared anyway, credits were credits and as long as they paid the bills he would continue to cash in on those high paying jobs. Noticing the disgusted looks on Ironhide's and Prowl's faces he growled darkly. What did they know anyway? The Twins had known what he was doing and had never had a problem with it so why should they?!

"Yew ain' neva live' in da slums, yew don' kno' wat we 'ad ta do ta ge' by. But ah wen' straigh', ah go' outta dat life."

He turned his head to throw an irritated glare at Ratchet.

"Yew done ye'?"

He let out a somewhat unmechly yelp as the CMO yanked the shrapnel free of his shoulder. Ratchet snarled dark curses under his breath as he deposited the jagged metal on a tray and set about sealing up Nightfire's shoulder. Nightfire sat in silence as the welder Ratchet was wielding slowly closed the jagged wound in his shoulder. He ignored the dark looks he was receiving from Prowl and Ironhide, not caring much for their opinions. He'd put that part of his life behind him, would it not kill them to do the same and let sleeping turbo-foxes lie?! He stood to leave as Ratchet finished sealing his shoulder, but stopped when the medic handed him a small tub.

"Wat's dis fer?"

Ratchet jabbed the still tender weld on Nightfire's shoulder, ignoring the pained hiss from the other mech.

"You haven't been taking care of yourself. I've never seen a more severe case of protoform corrosion in a mech your age before. You're in danger of getting rust poisoning and Primus knows what else in your main energon lines if you keep this up. That tub's full of medication for your protoform. Which you **will** be using."

Nightfire shrugged, he knew he was in poor condition but then again he didn't have time to look after himself. Not with four mechlings to care for and a war to fight. He didn't understand though why Ratchet cared so much, but he wasn't about to say no to free medicine. Nodding his thanks and shoving the medication into his subspace, he turned to leave the medbay when Ironhide moved to stand in front of him, forcing him to stop. Headspikes darkening dangerously as he folded his arms and drew himself up to his full height, he glared down at the Weapons Specialist.

"Move."

Only problem was the heavily armoured mech didn't move. Instead his cannon's hummed and whirled in their brackets as he looked up at the younger mech.

"No, I don't think I will. You provided the scum of Cybertron with the weapons and explosives they needed. You are just as responsible as they are for the crimes those weapons were involved in! What's to stop you from going back to that life huh?! Well … answer that why don't you!"

Nightfire's clenched fists dropped to his sides as he fought to keep his temper. He loomed aggressively over Ironhide, the shorter mech being forced to back up a few steps as Nightfire got into his personal space. Tensions ran high as the two mechs glared at each other. both Ratchet and Prowl, as well as the two Autobot's who were supposed to be watching Swindle, were carefully watching the two, hoping to intervene before a fist was thrown. However their intervention would not be necessary. Just when it looked like Nightfire was about to smash Ironhide's faceplates in, the doors to Medbay opened. Hovering in the doorway, sobbing quietly, was little Nova, his saddened faceplates tear stained and his sensory panels drooping.

"C-c-crea'er? Why Carrier leave? Ah h-h-had dat n-nigh'mare agin. Di' she no' love us no more?"

Nightfire roughly shoved Ironhide aside and all but ran over to his smallest sparkling. Almost tenderly, he scooped Nova up and held the tiny mechling to his chest. As he held Nova close the young mech's cries slowed until only the occasional sob hiccupped free.

"Hey now, none o' dat now. Yer carrier loved yew an' yer brother's so very much liddle 'un. She … she didn' wanna leave … bu', sometimes dere ain' a choice. C'mon, 'ow 'bout ah ge' some warm energon fer ya, jus' da way yew like it?"

As Nova nodded, snuggling into his brawny chest, Nightfire threw a silent glare at Ironhide.

: _Dis is why ah won' eva go back. Ah go' a family now, ah'd do anythin' ta keep dem safe, an' ah won' go back ta a job dat will put dem at risk. Jus' … jus' drop it Hide. Yew go' a problem, take it up wit' meh in da trainin' room_. :

He looked down at Nova who was now almost back in recharge in his arms and vented.

: _Dat life nearly go' meh killed 'fore ah quit. It's over an' done, ah won' go back. Ah ain' askin' yew ta fergive wat ah've done, bu' … can yew at leas' jus' leave well 'nough alone? Ah don' wan' mah sparklin's ta 'ave ta fin' out 'bout mah pas' from anyone bu' meh an' if yew can' keep yer trap shu' dey'll soon kno'. Ah … ah don' wan dem ta 'ate meh 'cause o' wat ah did. _:

Ironhide inwardly winced, he hadn't realised how much this was worrying Nightfire. The younger mech's distress was plain to see as he watched the Weapons Specialist warily. Finally Ironhide looked away, somewhat ashamed with himself. It was clear that Nightfire's past still haunted him and Ironhide knew that, with the war and all, his past crimes were irrelevant. It was what he did now that was important and it was pretty obvious whose side Nightfire was on.

"Fine, get on outta here Nightfire. I won't take this any further … but you know Prime's gotta be told. I'm sorry but it's gotta be done."

Nightfire flinched, he knew he should have come clean the first time but he had wanted to just forget that part of his life.

"Ah'll tell 'im Hide. Ah gotta go tell 'im dat da lab's gonna need fixin' agin anyways."

He nodded his thanks to the Weapons Specialist and again to Ratchet as he finally left the Medbay, throwing a vicious glare at Swindle as he departed. He didn't even spare a thought for Prowl who'd been silently seething in the Medbay. Shifting Nova in his arms he headed towards the rooms he shared with the Twins. As far as he knew, Ironwill had taken Niner with him to watch the Spec Op's mechs train in the Field Simulation area whilst Nexus had been spending the day with Sunstreaker in the training room. At three vorns, Ironwill was starting to look at what division he wanted to try and join once he was old enough so as long as he was back at a reasonable time Nightfire didn't mind where he went. The Triplets were old enough to be left on their own anyway as long as Niner wasn't left on his own and Nexus was kept away from the labs so it didn't surprise him that Nova had been left behind again. The smallest triplet, although just as rude and bad tempered as his siblings, wasn't as interested in watching the more violent divisions in the Autobots as the rest of his brothers. When given the opportunity, Nova was more likely to be found listening to Ratchet and Jacker as they worked in the Medbay. Nightfire had been surprised at first, but he didn't see the harm in having a son that was medically inclined, if Nova became a medic at least he would be able to patch up the rest of his siblings.

Punching the door control with his free hand, Nightfire entered the somewhat spartan quarters he shared with the rest of his family. He carefully set Nova down, caressing his audios when the little mech stirred, before going over to the battered energon dispenser he and Sideswipe had 'borrowed' a few orns ago. He had to smack it a few times but eventually he had the promised warm energon for Nova. He was just about to gently wake the small mechling up when the door chimed, indicating there was someone outside. Rolling his optics behind his visor, Nightfire set the energon cube down and roughly opened the door.

"Wat d'yew wan' … oh, hey Prime."

Optimus calmly looked up at Nightfire.

"I've just had an interesting talk with Prowl, do you mind if we talk?"

Well frag.

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**Hope you enjoyed this. Please feel free to review and tell me what you think**


	16. Chapter 15

**It's here! Finally, I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out. But fieldwork calls and I must answer if I want to stay at Uni. Anywho, here's the next installment of Growing Up AlleyBot!**

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Ch.15

Nightfire stared incredulously at Optimus, not moving from his position at the door. Talk about what exactly? What had Prowl said that had warranted this most unexpected and definitely unwelcome visit?! Seemingly unaware of how stressed Nightfire was, Optimus calmly looked inside the room.

"Do you mind if we talk inside? I'd prefer to not stand here in the corridor where we could be overheard."

Nightfire gawked for a split second before reluctantly stepping aside.

"C'mon in den. Nova, bitlet … can yew go fin' yer Uncle Side's? Crea'er's gotta talk."

The small AlleyBot, who had woken up when the door chimed, looked between his father and the imposing figure of Optimus Prime with terrified optics. He nodded warily before squeezing between Optimus and the door and fleeing down the corridor. Nightfire sighed as Optimus slipped into the room before slamming the door behind the Autobot leaders back. He glowered slightly at Optimus before folding his arms.

"Wat d'yew wan' Prime? Ah really don' 'ave time fer dis."

At least Optimus decided to jump straight to the point.

"I know about you working for Lockdown and Swindle, and to be honest I don't want to punish you and your family for doing what you did to survive. But, for some reason only he knows… Prowl is under the impression that you had something to do with the assassinations of both the Senators of Tarn and Tyger Pax. If that's true … we need to get you out of here."

Nightfire collapsed heavily onto his berth. There they were, the two things he'd hoped would never be dug up. Yes he'd been responsible for killing both those Senators, Lockdown had had to pay him double on both kills to persuade him to actually take the jobs. It'd been the last thing he'd done for Lockdown seeing as he'd completed them on his way to Simfur to challenge Omega 17. Sometimes he could still feel his finger tightening around the trigger, see the light flicker out of the Senator's optics as their dying bodies crumpled to the ground. He could remember meeting with Lockdown, the bounty hunter questioning his competency and him reminding the older mech that when he was being paid the exorbitant amount he was … he never missed. Never. He'd been careful to cover his tracks as he always had been, but he knew if anyone could find evidence linking him to the two assassinations it was Prowl. The SIC wouldn't just go after him though, he'd go after the Twins and his boys as well. That was something he would never tolerate. He looked back up at Optimus; he'd do anything to keep his family safe. The Autobots were supposed to be a new start for Nightfire, a fresh page as it were. He'd left the dark part of his life behind and had gone legit, becoming a father in the process and making something of himself without resorting to crime. Now Prowl was looking to ruin that and his family were in danger.

"Wat di' yew 'ave in mind?"

_PAGE BREAKER_

Prowl bent over the computer screen as it scrolled through endless reams of data. As soon as Nightfire had left with his son, he'd rushed straight to Prime. However the wise Autobot leader had refused to accept any of Prowl's accusations without evidence. Solid, watertight evidence at that. So while Optimus had gone to talk to Nightfire, Prowl had dashed towards his office, intent on unearthing the evidence he needed to get rid of the sociopathic, unstable AlleyBot. He had been one of the chief investigators in the two assassinations and they had always bothered him, especially since they never caught the perpetrator. When Nightfire had mentioned that he'd worked for Lockdown in the past alarm bells had started ringing in Prowl's head. Lockdown was a known mercenary yet the way in which the assassinations had been carried out just hadn't been his MO. Prowl knew Lockdown sometimes used Swindle to subcontract his jobs to other mercenaries so the fact that Nightfire had known and worked with both made Prowl even more suspicious.

The first thing he had done was approach Swindle for more information. The wheeling and dealing arms dealer had stared at him, shock in his fox-like purple optics. In the end, Prowl had had to agree to record their conversation privately so that it wasn't on the accessible records. That and he'd promised Swindle that he'd transfer him to the Brig on a different base, away from Nightfire. Reassured that there was little chance that the unpredictable mech would find out about his duplicity, Swindle had sang like a cyber-canary. He'd told Prowl everything he needed to hear and more, going over every job Nightfire had done for both him and Lockdown, including things Nightfire had never revealed. Swindle had turned out to be a veritable goldmine of information and Prowl had left satisfied that he hadn't wasted his time. He just needed the additional information to back up what Swindle had revealed before going to Optimus so he quickly hurried to the Security Room. Accessing a free terminal, he started digging.

He trawled through footage of all of Nightfire's fights, both during his time as a gladiator and his recent fights alongside the Autobots, trying to figure out how the dangerous AlleyBot ended his fights. He noticed that during fights and skirmishes where Nightfire was physically exhausted, or sometimes just being plain lazy, he would swiftly end his opponent with a single shot through the head. Otherwise the unfortunate facing him would be literally torn apart.

Frowning, he quickly unearthed the autopsy reports of both the assassinations, which had occurred only days apart. His icy blue optics narrowed as he re-read the final autopsy reports. As he remembered from when he was first brought into the cases, both Senators had been killed by a single, perfect shot through the head. Their guards had met a slightly more grisly end, throats slit or spark chambers cloven in two by a large blade. Clean, quick, expertly executed; the two assassinations were definitely not the work of an amateur. The ballistics reports had said that the rounds used to end the Senator's lives were the difficult to obtain hollow-point shadow rounds. This particular type of round was armour piercing as well as being immune to most scanners, allowing for assassins to carry them past checkpoints and such. They were also insanely difficult to get hold of outside of the Prime's Guard. However, literally the day before the first assassination, a crate of HPS rounds had never made it to the division of Prime's Guard in Tarn. However, just because Nightfire had a habit of shooting his opponents in the head and a crate of the HPS rounds happened to have gone missing around the time of the two assassinations didn't mean that the AlleyBot was involved.

Prowl growled under his breath, doorwing's stiff in his agitation as he pulled up the video feeds from the days just before and just after the assassinations. He knew that Nightfire had been seen in Simfur only two weeks after the assassinations. Both Tarn and Tyger Pax were on the shortest route between Kaon and Simfur so there was already a high possibility that Nightfire would have stopped at both cities on his way to challenge Omega 17. Nightfire was a Kaonite AlleyBot, a city type that wasn't exactly common in Tarn and rarely seen in Tyger Pax, so he'd stand out even amongst his own kind. It felt like hours had gone by as he stared at the screen, watching footage flash frame by frame in front of his optics when he noticed something suspicious in one frame. Pausing the footage, taken the day before the assassination of the Senator of Tyger Pax, he noticed the figure of an AlleyBot. Although the figure was mostly in shadow, the legs and skates were clearly visible and were somewhat familiar. Prowl quickly zoomed in on the image; a rare, shark-like grin splitting his face as he found what he was looking for. On the right leg, just below the knee, were a trio of scars. The scars wrapped around the AlleyBot's lower leg, cutting across the dark armour like the leg had been clawed. Quickly, Prowl brought up an image of Nightfire and ran a comparison program between the scars on his leg and the scars in the image. The shark grin became even more pronounced as the program ran its course.

"Got you."

The program had come back with a 98% probability that the scars in the image were the same scars that were wrapped around Nightfire's leg. That still left 2% but it was a small enough percentage that it didn't matter. With Swindle's testimony and the information he'd gathered it was enough.

Prowl had his proof.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Optimus wasn't surprised at Nightfire's lack of response, if anything the younger mech reacted just as he expected. Optimus wasn't about to say he'd suspected Nightfire of being involved in the two assassinations but if the other Prime was, he wouldn't exactly be surprised. He folded his arms, levelling a calm look at the other mech.

"I think we need to get you off the base, but I don't want to lose your invaluable skills either. There is one way we could do this, but … it would require a lot of sacrifice on your part."

Nightfire looked up.

"Ah'll do it. Don' care wat, ah'll do it."

Frowning, Optimus paused for a second. Nightfire was being completely honest, yet what he was about to ask could make or break Nightfire, both physically and mentally. Yet he knew this was necessary to an Autobot victory, and for that reason alone he continued on with explaining his plan.

"There are certain Decepticons, high ranking Decepticons, who we need to remove from the field to create critical weaknesses within their command structure. I want you to take them out. With them dead, we stand a much better chance of ending this war."

Nightfire raised his eyebrows behind his mask and smirked. Optimus was a lot tougher and more callous than most gave him credit for. Most bots saw the wise, kind Prime, the caring leader that wanted nothing but peace and was reluctant to pick up his weapon with the intention to kill. Fewer though saw the dark, battle-hardened soldier that lurked just under the surface, the one who could make the harsh decisions and could easily order the deaths of other bots to ensure a victory. Nightfire recognised a fellow warrior when he saw one, and Optimus Prime was definitely a warrior.

"Yer a lo' meaner den ah gave yew credi' fer Prime. 'ho d'ya wan' takin' owt?"

Optimus was surprised to say the least. He didn't think Nightfire would realise the lengths he was prepared to go to in order to end the civil war that was tearing Cybertron apart. Mentally shrugging he handed Nightfire a datapad.

"The details are on here. I want this done with minimum fanfare, this mission is completely off record. Complete the job and get back, I should have managed to calm Prowl down by then."

Nightfire nodded, shoving the datapad into his subspace. Standing, he inclined his head at Optimus.

"Ah owe yew Prime. Jus' promise meh one thin'."

Optimus raised an eyebrow at Nightfire who was now standing in the doorway.

"Name it Nightfire."

Nightfire looked back at him, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Keep Prowl away from mah family. He 'arms dem … ah kill 'im."

With those dark words of warning Nightfire slipped out of the door and down the corridor. He'd only just turned the corner and begun to head towards the back exit when he heard Prowl go charging past, shouting for Optimus. He cursed and picked up his pace, soon arriving at the door. Hacking the lock took next to no time and he soon vanished into the night, his dark ocean blue and silver paintjob allowing him to almost disappear amongst the broken rubble of Iacon's city centre.

_PAGE BREAKER_

_(7 orns later, Ruins of Praxus)_

Nightfire sighted down the scope of his rifle, finger almost lovingly resting on the trigger. This was his last target, then he could finally go home. He'd missed so much of his boys growing up and he hated it. Ironwill was an adult now, ready to join the Special Operations division, and the Triplets were not far from being classed as adults themselves. He'd managed to sneak onto the base for their spark-day's, otherwise he hadn't seen them at all. Thankfully they didn't blame him, the Twins had explained everything after he'd told them what was going on, and were eagerly awaiting his return. He also hadn't seen or spoken to his brothers either, after he'd managed to sneak back in to tell them the situation, and he hated that he was having to maintain com silence. Shoving his thoughts to one side he looked down the scope again, focussing on the unfortunate Seeker currently in his sights. His orders were to cripple Starscream, but not to kill him like the others he'd taken out over the past orns. Both he and Optimus knew that the Vosian Winglord was Megatron's main rival and continuously caused the Decepticon leader problems. A lucky escape from an unknown sniper would send Starscream's paranoia sky high and he would instantly suspect Megatron. By creating disharmony between the SIC of the Decepticons, to whom almost all of the Seekers were loyal to, and the Decepticon Lord, who all the other Decepticons were fanatically loyal to, Nightfire was supposed to influence the Decepticons into tearing themselves apart.

A small, malicious grin twisted his handsome features as he gently squeezed the trigger, sending the modified HPS round hurtling towards Starscream's beloved wings. Nightfire's malevolent grin became more pronounced as his audios picked up the Seeker's agonized shriek of pain. Normal HPS rounds were hollow at the tip like their name suggested. However, his contained a special mixture, designed to cause the Seeker maximum agony. The minute amount of crystallized acetone exploded on impact, tearing through Starscream's armour, whilst the acid mixed in with the explosive ate away at the highly sensitive wiring in his wings. Nightfire's fingers were scarred from making this vicious cocktail and modifying the rounds to carry their tiny payload. His job complete, Nightfire was about to place his rifle into the recess in his armour where he usually stored it when something made him stiffen. It was that moment of intuition, when one knew they were in danger, and Nightfire threw himself to the side just in time to avoid the hail of machine gun fire that smashed into the roof space he had only previously been occupying. Cursing angrily and thankful of the all black paintjob he was currently sporting Nightfire took to the skies. Once in the air, Nightfire was in his element, dodging the attacks with contemptuous ease. He returned fire, killing two of his attackers as he soared through the darkening sky, heading back towards Iacon. Towards home.

"Sorry ah can' stay, gotta tell Lor' Megatron ah've comple'ed mah mission."

Nightfire laughed out loud as he landed in the street below, easily escaping the city. The frustrated howls of his pursuers were music to his audios as he expertly avoided them. He didn't slow down until he was absolutely sure he was no longer being pursued, but he still travelled at a fair pace. Mentioning Megatron and a completed mission was the manganese shavings on top of the energon goodie in creating a permanent rift between the Decepticon's First and Second in Command. Now he could go home, back to his family, and tell Optimus that he'd completed the insane mission he'd been sent on. He slowed as he approached the first Autobot markers, watching warily for the snipers he knew were probably present. With his current paintjob he was all but unrecognisable as an Autobot which made him a target for the trigger happy snipers.

He was right to be wary as he turned a corner. The high calibre sniper round smashed into his chest, just below his spark. The impact threw him backwards, visor flickering weakly as his fading audios picked up the sounds of shouting and running. He coughed painfully.

"Autobot. Ah … ah'm an Autobot."

Then … darkness.

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**There you have it :D Hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to keep me motivated with your brilliant reviews and I'll hopefully have the next chapter in a couple of weeks.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Well this was finished faster than I expected but who cares?! I've been looking forward to finishing this chappie ever since I started it. And for the first time ever I have a soundtrack for part of the chapter. I'd recommend listening to 'One of Us' from Lion King 2 once you get to Prowl and Nightfire's ... 'interesting' encounter.**

**Enjoy!**

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Ch.16

_(5 orns later)_

A low, steady beeping was the first thing Nightfire heard as he came online. He groaned tiredly, a throbbing ache in his chest plates making itself known. The pain caused his optics to fly open under his visor and he shot bolt upright on the berth, memories of being shot as he approached the base flashing in his mind's eye. Falling back with a yell of pain he looked around as Ratchet and a young purple and blue AlleyBot ran over.

"Well back from the realm of the offline I see. Nova, check the monitors, make sure your glitch of a creator is stable."

Nightfire stared as his son, the one of the sons whose lives he'd been absent from for so long, growled rudely at the CMO before checking the beeping monitors currently attached to Nightfire.

"'is levels are 'oldin' steady; looks like 'e's gonna be fine ta ge' up in a bi'."

Nova looked down at his father, icy blue optics meeting electric blue-violet visor. An unusual feeling rang through Nightfire's spark. He'd missed so much of his boy's lives, it would be a small wonder if they still remembered him. Checking his internal chronometer he barely withheld a curse when he discovered that he'd missed the Triplet's fourth sparkday, the day they finally became adults. Biting back everything he wanted to say he gave the smallest of his son's a good look. Nova was fully grown, still tiny especially by AlleyBot standards, and the resemblance he held to his mother had faded somewhat, but there were still echoes of Glacialnova in his optics and helm shape. A small, imperceptible smile graced Nova's face for a split second before he turned away, grabbing a datapad off the medical tray as he did so.

"Yew too' a sho' jus' below an' to da lef' of yer spark chamber. 'ad yew come roun' dat corner any la'er yew'd be offline. Yew were lucky dis time crea'er, nex' time yew may no' be."

With that Nova just walked off, shouting through to Ratchet that he was going to get some energon for the two of them. The CMO poked his head out of his office just as it closed behind the young mech. Shaking his head he looked over to a now miserable looking Nightfire.

"Quite the brat you have there … not as bad as his brothers but he's still a brat."

Nightfire vented quietly, feeling somewhat unwanted and alone.

"Mah boy's 'ave all grown up on meh Ratch' … an' ah missed it. Mebbe ah shoul' 'ave no' come back."

Ratchet's optics narrowed dangerously as he glared at the younger mech. Nightfire wouldn't have known, but every night since he'd left on the insane mission that Optimus had given him the Triplets and Ironwill would go and wait for him by the entrance to the Iacon base. They would just sit and wait, optics hopeful, for their sire to come through those doors. All four mechlings had been spark broken when Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had explained that he wouldn't be coming back for quite some time; that he had work to do off base that meant he couldn't visit all that often. Nexus had cried himself into recharge that night, wanting his creator but knowing he wasn't there. Ratchet knew Nightfire had snuck back onto base for his sparkling's spark days but that was it. The AlleyBot hadn't been able to find time to try again, especially with Prowl still on the warpath and Decepticons to offline. Realizing that Nightfire didn't know that the Autobot SIC was still out for energon Ratchet opened his mouth to speak. Yet as he did so a blue, black and silver blur literally ran out of the wall and crashed into Nightfire.

"Crea'er! Yer bac'! Ah though' Nova weren' tellin' da truth agin bu' 'e was righ'!"

Nightfire had let out a pained grunt when the young mech had crashed into him but he couldn't help but smile as the other AlleyBot hugged him tight.

"'ey Nexus, its alrigh'. Ah'm bac' now …"

He coughed slightly.

"Uh, lemme go bitle', ah nee' air in mah vents."

Nexus very quickly let go, grinning inanely and rubbing the back of his helm. Ratchet rolled his optics at the sight. After several scans, he'd determined that Nexus's impact with the floor had partially crushed his battle computer. The part was now in a permanent state of semi-activation, leaving Nexus an emotional mess. For the most part the young mech was actually quite serious, with a dry wit and fierce tongue hiding a young mech with no confidence in himself that longed to get out of his sire's shadow. However, whenever he experienced extreme happiness or elation, he'd become this immature, child-like mech who had no sense whatsoever and was actually annoyingly innocent. At other times, usually when he was feeling angry or on a battle high, he'd literally go insane with battle lust. He was quite a sight, howling with laughter as he tore his opponents to shreds, even if they were just training drones; his fangs stained with energon. He'd only participated in a few skirmishes so far but already the Decepticons feared him as much as his sire and uncles.

Nightfire heaved himself upright, wincing as the pain in his chest re-ignited. He looked warily over at Ratchet, knowing all too well the medic's wrath if he were to move before he was supposed to.

"Ah free ta go?"

Still musing Ratchet nodded absentmindedly.

"Yeah get out of here. Primus help you if I have to see you in the next week though!"

Nightfire and Nexus were both gone by the time Ratchet realised what he'd just said. He cursed angrily before shrugging. Nightfire was a big mech now, he could take care of himself. He didn't need protecting, especially from Prowl, and in all honesty, he'd find out that the SIC was still on the warpath sooner rather than later.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire was dragged into the Rec Room by his bouncing youngest and pulled over to a table where the rest of his family were also lounging. Sideswipe looked up from his cube and grinned as Sunstreaker shoved a cube of Trio Brew in front of Nightfire.

"Nice ta see yew outta Medbay lil'Nigh'. 's bin borin' wit'ou' yew."

Nightfire simply grinned, knocking back his cube even as Niner nuzzled up to him, looking for some affection and reassurance that his sire really was back. Setting his cube down, Nightfire tapped out a message in Signal Code on Niner's palm.

-Am okay. Sore but okay.-

Niner grinned, tapping back on Nightfire's own hand.

-Glad-

Laughing quietly Nightfire grabbed his cube again. He looked over the edge of it at Ironwill, who was just sitting quietly.

"Yew alrigh' Will?"

The young Praxian started, doorwing's flaring out before relaxing again.

"Ah'm fine crea'er. Jus' glad yer back is all."

The family all laughed and continued downing the cubes of Trio Brew that Sideswipe had stashed in his subspace. Their merrymaking was brought to a crashing halt though as Prowl approached, doorwing's held stiffly. Nightfire groaned quietly, glaring at the SIC over the rim of his cube.

"Wadd'ya wan' Prowl? Ah'm no' doin' nuthin'."

The lean Praxian glared at Nightfire as he drew a set of stasis cuffs from his subspace. Wary, Nightfire stood, allowing himself more room to move if Prowl decided to do something stupid. Behind him the rest of his family also stood, chairs scraping harshly against the floor, ready to back him up if necessary. A low growl started in Nightfire's chest as he frowned at the tense SIC.

"Wat'chu playin' a' Prowl?!"

Looking up at Nightfire, Prowl drew himself up to his full height and pulled out a datapad.

"Nightfire Prime of Kaon … you are under arrest for the assassinations of Senator Crankshaft of Tyger Pax and Senator Dealer of Tarn; murder; accessory to murder; accessory to terrorism; armed theft; possession of illegal explosives; illegal street racing; sabotage and corporate espionage. Anything you now say or do may be used as evidence against you at your trial. Please surrender yourself for immediate questioning."

Stunned silence permeated throughout the room. Numerous sets of shocked optics flickered between the silent Nightfire and the smug looking Prowl. Behind their younger brother the Twins shared a look; what the frag was Prowl playing at?! Last they knew Optimus had all but ordered Prowl to back off and leave them alone, particularly Nightfire. This was the first time they'd seen the uptight tactician disobey a direct order, but it couldn't have come at a worse time. Nightfire was still staring at Prowl even as a slightly deranged grin twisted his features. He'd have to pay a 'visit' to Swindle later, he was the only one who could have given Prowl the information he seemingly possessed. But for now, Swindle had a stay of execution as Prowl was currently his target. He'd been wanting to pay back the uptight Praxian for so long, well … he had an excuse now.

"An' if ah don' wanna?"

Prowl's doorwing's flared in surprise as he threw a warning look at the considerably bigger mech.

"Appropriate force will be used if you refuse to come voluntarily. Your brothers will also be remanded in custody as possibly accessories to a few of your crimes… **ACK**!"

Nightfire struck without warning. His fang like denta crashed into the gap between Prowl's neck and his shoulder and the giant AlleyBot whipped his head violently to the left. The seriously injured Praxian was sent flying and crashed into the wall, sliding down it to crumple in a heap on the floor. He'd live, but that wound was going to take a long time to repair and even longer to fully heal. Snarling quietly as energon dripped from his denta, Nightfire glared at the other Autobot's who were now rushing to engage him. A shot echoed out and an Autobot crashed to the ground with a scream of agony, his knee destroyed. Nightfire stared in surprise until Sunstreaker pounced on the downed bot, punching him into stasis. Energon dripping from his fists the yellow Twin moved to stand by his brother.

"No-one's takin' mah brotha no-where!"

Sideswipe skated past, dodging another shot with ease as Nova took down an Autobot affiliated AlleyBot, claws expertly seeking out the bigger mech's weakest points. Ironwill lashed out with a powerful kick, sending another mech flying even as he shouted at his adopted creator and said creator's brother.

"Don' jus' stan' dere! C'mon, we gotta go!"

All seven mechs charged through the base, disabling any mech or femme that was in their way. Approaching the bases main doors Nightfire opened fire on them, sending blast after blast from one of his cannons until the doors were just twisted, broken slag heaps. Nightfire and his family barrelled through the wrecked doors, breaking out into the main open air complex. Dashing ahead of the rest of his family, Niner speedily disabled the Autobot's guarding the gate even as Sunstreaker smashed into the final barrier to their freedom.

"Go! Go!"

Nightfire stopped just before the gate, fending off any bot stupid enough to get close as his family ran through. He sent one final glare at Optimus who had just come out of the base before skating through the gate. He put on a burst of speed to catch up with his family who were waiting for him just past the first marker point. A dark snarl twisted his face as he joined them, made all the more vicious by the energon still splattered around his jaws. He looked at his panting family. Ironwill's doorwing's were flaring and drooping in his state of shocked fatigue. Nova was staring back towards the base, a conflicted look on his face. Niner was simply venting rapidly as he deactivated his speedster legacy, staggering slightly in exhaustion. Nexus was cleaning the energon off his blades, wings held high and stiff in his stress. The Twins were just standing, trying to figure out what they were going to do now seeing as there was no way the Autobot's would have them now. Growling quietly, ignoring the pain shooting through his frame, Nightfire gestured out into the wild ruins of Iacon and beyond.

"C'mon we gotta ge' movin'… dere ain' nuthin' lef' fer us 'ere."

_PAGE BREAKER_

Optimus shook his head as he took in the carnage left behind by the family of seven outcast mechs. Ratchet and FirstAid were struggling to keep up with the amount of wounded, especially seeing as Prowl was still in a critical condition and needed constant monitoring. He vented quietly, this was exactly what he didn't want to happen; this was why he ordered Prowl to leave Nightfire and his family alone. He looked down as Jazz approached, the short silver Polyhexian whistling at the damage.

"Slag, they sure made one 'eck of a mess. Wan' meh ta go afta them?"

Optimus shook his head.

"No. I need you here while Prowl is out of action. I warned him that going after Nightfire would lead to violence and now look. Several mechs have been injured and we've just lost four frontliners, two Spec Ops mechs and a medic."

Although he clearly wasn't happy about this Jazz nodded, claws flexing slightly.

"D'ya think they'll come back Boss Bot?"

Optimus broke optic contact with his TIC, staring sadly out over the carnage of the past hour. He hoped they would come back but in all honesty why should they? After what had just happened they were perfectly justified to stay away and probably would. Venting again, but more quietly this time, he gave an almost unseen shake of the helm.

"I don't know Jazz … we can only wait and see."

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**There you have it! All the built up tension between Prowl and Nightfire has finally erupted in a volcanic display of violence XD**

**Don't forget I'm still taking Rules and Oneshot requests for the Guide, 25th reviewer get's a oneshot of their choosing**

**Again no promises on the next update, I'll have it out as soon as it's finished and read over.**

**See ya!**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hey there everyone! Welcome to the newest chapter of Growing Up AlleyBot. Soundtrack wise; I'd recommend Fragments. It's a Red vs Blue song on YouTube that I think fit's Nightfire perfectly in this chapter.**

**Warning: This chapter's probably the darkest one I've written to date. There will be blood and injury and Nightfire being the nasty piece of work he is.**

**Hope you like it!**

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Ch.17

_(Three vorns later; edge of the Manganese Mountains)_

The crank-bear stilled as it approached its cave. It had taken this path to and from its cave several times and yet … deep in its primitive processor it could tell something was off this time. It was right. The giant mecha-animal barely had any time to turn its helm when a midnight black and blue shape smashed into it with a savage roar. The bear didn't stand a chance, its neck was crushed by its assailant's powerful jaws before it could even try to mount a defense.

Nightfire stood over the dead crank-bear, energon splattered across his face. He grinned; this was a good kill, one that would provide enough energon to feed him and his family for at least a few days. Crouching down he grabbed the carcass and slung it over his powerful shoulders before making his way back to the camp he shared with his brothers and sons. Since their dramatic escape from the Autobot base in Iacon the seven mech's had taken to a nomadic lifestyle, clashing with the Decepticons and avoiding Autobots as they went. They had run into small packs of AlleyBots, but Nightfire and his brothers had agreed that they wouldn't ever join up with one so they moved on. They weren't suited for the pack lifestyle anyway, they were too self-reliant and damaged. Staying on the move had ended up becoming their only option.

A dark growl rumbled out of Nightfire's chest and he narrowed his optics behind his visor. He was sick and tired of living his life on the run, always hunted, never a moments rest. Bounty hunters had pursued them for the better part of a vorn thanks to Prowl's wanted notices. That was until Nightfire and Sunstreaker had decided enough was enough and, after tracking three of the more persistent hunters to their camp, had slaughtered them.

To make matters worse, about two orns after they'd left the Autobots Jazz had shown up with a message from Optimus. How the Autobot TIC had found them no-one knew but he'd happily left almost as soon as he'd handed over the datapad with Optimus's message. Then again, that may have been due to the dark threat of dismemberment if he even peeped a hint about their location. The datapad had only contained a highly encrypted com-link number and a request for either Nightfire or one of the Twins to use it. As it turned out, the number was a previously unknown com-link number for Optimus. Once contact had been established between Nightfire and Optimus, the Autobot Commander explained why he had Jazz track them down. Nightfire had almost exploded from sheer rage when Optimus explained that he wanted to hire him and his family to take out Decepticon installations and the like, with the occasional sabotage, infiltration and prisoner rescue on the side. They would, of course, be well paid for their services. Nightfire had to admire Optimus's nerve … the older Prime must have been either drunk on high grade or simply too trusting to hire him and his family. The sheer cheek of the other mech's request had made even Sunstreaker choke on his energon; though that might have been because it was very low quality energon that Nexus had 'acquired'. Knowing they'd die without decent energon, ammo and medical supplies, Nightfire had had no alternative but to agree, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

As he made his way over the ridge overlooking their current camp Nightfire's audios picked up shouting. He vented harshly in annoyance; it sounded like Nova and Nexus were at each-other's throats … again. Nightfire couldn't figure out how the two siblings could fight so viciously all the time and yet forgive each other after a short period of sulking by the loser of whatever argument had started the fight in the first place. Last time it was Nova sulking because Nexus had won the argument on where he should steal the next set of medical supplies from. But by the sound of it, Nexus was losing this time. Rolling his optics behind his visor Nightfire entered the camp, dropping the crank-bear carcass by the fire.

"Alrigh' yew two brea' i' up. C'mon, ah go' dinner."

The two bickering siblings almost immediately ceased their squabble as they ran to go convert the carcass into processable energon for dinner. Shaking his head in amusement Nightfire walked over to sit by Sideswipe; the red Twin looking up from cleaning his blades.

"Dem two stop figh'in'?"

Nightfire hummed in amusement, wings relaxing as he stretched out.

"Fer now. Wat star'e' i' dis time?"

Sideswipe shrugged, he didn't know and he lacked the capacity to care. Frowning he set down the rag he was using to clean his blades and handed a datapad over to his brother.

"Go' anotha job fro' Optimus. Yew migh' wanna tak' a loo', see if ya wanni' or no'."

Nightfire took the datapad from his brother, scanning what was typed on it briefly. He was annoyed that another job had come through so soon; Niner, Ironwill and Sunstreaker weren't back from the last job they'd been sent. Still, no point in turning it down. He hummed thoughtfully as he studied the briefing. A suspected Decepticon training camp, a small one according to intelligence reports. And surprisingly close to where they were currently camped. That was if Intelligence had got it right this time. Nightfire frowned, he didn't want to end up in an ambush like the last time Intel had got it wrong. But then again … the chance to take out several Decepticons and ensure there were fewer places for the scum to train more recruits sounded fun. Nodding he handed the datapad back to his brother.

"Ah'll do i', won'' tak' more den a few days. Ah'll se' ou' tamorro'."

Sideswipe shrugged, accepting the datapad back and resuming his earlier task. As he started to renew the lethal edge on his blades he sent a sideways glance at his brother.

"Gotta com offa 'Will. Dey'll be bac' by tamorro'. Mission wa' a succes' so dat's anotha paychec'."

"Nice. Nee' more supplies anyways."

Grinning Nightfire stood, lazily making his way over to where Nova and Nexus had finished getting their dinner ready. It was surprisingly easy to convert mecha-animals into energon that their tanks could process, even if it tasted like slag. Snagging a cube from Nexus, ignoring his outraged squawk, Nightfire chugged it down. He grimaced at the appalling taste but it was nice to have a full tank again. He shoved Nexus away when the younger mech tried to get the cube back and laughed as the youngest triplet toppled over with a yelp. Scrambling away Nexus easily stole his smaller brother's cube and downed it before Nova could protest, gagging as the foul tasting energon hit the back of his throat. Nightfire shook his head and smirked; he may have been irritated about this job but at least it was bringing in enough credits that they wouldn't have to be drinking this sludge for a few orns.

_PAGE BREAKER_

Nightfire left early the next morning, swiftly winging his way towards the co-ordinates of the supposed Decepticon training camp. In all honesty he was just looking forward to killing a few Decepticons; training camp or not. The last few missions that had been sent to them hadn't needed his specific skill set so he was bored out of his processor. Destroying a training camp full of Decepticons was a good way to break the boredom. After two days flying Nightfire landed on top of a small cliff overlooking the co-ordinates. He army crawled his way to the top and peered over. He grinned darkly at what he saw. Intelligence was only partially right; there was a Decepticon training camp. But what they hadn't bothered to add was that the camp was smack in the middle of a small Decepticon settlement. He could see mechs and femmes of all ages going about their lives like the war didn't even exist. Their naïve belief that because they weren't on the front lines meant they could just act like nothing was wrong disgusted Nightfire to his core and a dangerous growl rumbled up from his powerful chassis. Anger slowly building, he swiftly skated towards the settlement, intent on killing every single one of them.

They never saw him until it was too late. The lightly armed, obviously inexperienced sentries were the first to fall; their corpses barely hitting the ground before he crashed into the next mech to cross his path. He grinned at the wide opticed mech as the Con scrambled desperately to remove the giant AlleyBot's claws from around his neck cables.

"P-p-please *cough* we haven't done anything…"

Nightfire's cold, emotionless visored glare cut off the Con's protests.

"Shaddup. Yer a Con; ah don' nee' anythin' else."

He let go of the Decepticon's neck as he spoke; enjoying the relief in the mech's optics. What an idiot. The Con's anguished death wail as Nightfire's fangs tore his throat out were music to the AlleyBot's audios. The betrayal and confusion in those fading ruby optics did nothing to stir any remorse within the tall mech. Nightfire looked up from his kill at the sounds of shouting and footsteps, energon dripping from his jaws. A deranged grin twisted his features as what appeared to be the entire settlement surrounded him. One Con; a tall seeker femme, aimed her blaster at Nightfire.

"I don't know who you are or where you came from but you can't just come in here and start killing us. You going to come in quietly or must we use force?"

Chuckling quietly Nightfire stood, head bowed slightly. He looked the seeker femme directly in the optics and grinned darkly as she took a few steps back; terrified by the rage and insanity that shone through his visor.

"Jus' fer dat … yew die las'."

He exploded forward, blades extended. Panicked, several Decepticons fired on him, their shots scorching and denting his heavy battle armour. Energon flew as Nightfire's swords gutted two mechs when he dashed between them. Even as they fell he was on the next Decepticon; this one a femme. Her death cries soon joined the other dying as he angrily slaughtered Con after Con. A stray shot blew the munitions store sky high, the flames reaching the energon stockpiled outside what appeared to be the Mess Hall. As the cubes ignited the fires spread and soon the settlement was burning around Nightfire and his opponents. Behind his visor, Nightfire closed his optics; fighting to his own internal song. Sunstreaker had once observed that watching Nightfire fight, even to the death, was like watching him dance to a song only he heard. Nightfire had to agree with his more artistically inclined sibling. Fighting was simply a deadly, savage dance to him as he easily flowed from one move to the next. He remembered seeing a painting Sunstreaker had once done of him fighting. When he had first seen it, he had wondered if the terrifying grace that Sunstreaker had shown in the piece was really what bots saw when he fought. Right now though, all that Nightfire really cared about was destroying not only the training camp, but the entire settlement.

As he'd promised, the seeker femme was still standing after he finished off the last mech, dropping the Con to the ground to choke on his own energon. She stared at him, crimson optics wide in horror. Nightfire just stared back, a lot more relaxed than he had been earlier despite the energon pouring from various injuries.

"You … you killed them … all of them. Why? What had we done"?

Retracting his energon stained blades back into his arms Nightfire sneered at the femme.

"Yew an' dem otha's are Con's. Dat's all da 'scuse ah nee'. Mah femme wa' kille' 'caus' o' dis war an' ah won' sto' 'til ah kill ev'ry las' one o' yews an' dis war's ove'."

He didn't even bother listening to the femme's response. Growling dangerously he charged forwards, only to be thrown back as a null ray blast struck him in the face. He picked himself up, shaking his head and snarling dangerously at the femme. The blast had shattered part of his visor and the dead, white optic and the scars surrounding it were clearly visible. He smirked at her shocked gasp.

"Your … your optic. You're … you're blind; aren't you?"

Angry and insulted Nightfire spat some congealed energon onto the ground.

"Wat's i' ta yew?!"

"I …"

Nightfire had had enough. Not even allowing the femme a chance to answer he barrelled forwards again, this time taking care to dodge as many of the null ray blasts as he could. He got right up in the femmes face, snarling darkly, and smashed his fist into her chest. She crashed to the ground, gasping in pain as her horrified optics stared up at the hard faced AlleyBot. Shaking his head in anger Nightfire lazily drew his energon bow, testing the string before taking aim. The bolt not only killed the femme, it blew her helm clean off. As her smoking corpse crashed lifelessly to the ground Nightfire looked around the burning settlement. He tipped his head to one side slightly when he saw one heavily reinforced building was still standing. Skating over Nightfire blasted the door open and stepped inside. His optics widened in surprise … this was not what he'd been expecting.

The building was full of sparklings and mechlings, their blood red optics wide in fright. Setting his jaw angrily Nightfire gestured towards the door.

"Ou'sid'."

After ensuring the building was now empty he turned to the terrified group of young mechs. One young mech in particular caught his attention, possibly because he appeared to be the oldest. He glared down at the quivering mechling; visor cold and unfeeling despite the crying sparklings that were hidden behind the younger mech's frame. The teens wide crimson optics were filled with terror as the raging fire flickered around them.

"Please. Please just leave us alone. They're just sparklings; can't you at least show them some mercy?!"

Nightfire tipped his head to one side for a second, optic twitching violently, before drawing one of his many blasters and aiming it at the teenage mechs head.

"Merceh huh?! Merceh i' a wor' ah no longe' un'erstan'."

The sharp report of the blaster echoed out, silencing the sparklings cries. Stepping over the now still body of their protector Nightfire looked down on them. He would not spare them; they may one day grow up to threaten his own sons. Holstering his blaster his blades slid back into their positions on his arms, energon still coating their lethal edges. A dark, twisted smirk stretched the scars along his face as he leapt, blades poised for the kill.

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Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked up when they heard wing beats; relaxing when they saw the new arrival was Nightfire. Sunstreaker shrugged and went back to his energon but Sideswipe frowned, staring at his little brother. Nightfire was covered in energon and fresh wounds yet he seemed different somehow. It was almost like something had died inside him. He caught the datapad that Nightfire threw at him and onlined it. Scanning it briefly he looked up in shock at his sibling.

"Nightfire … wat 'ave yew done?!"

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**Well, hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review**


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